From Next Avenue and Minnesota PBS— By Lin Grensing-Pophal —
At 102 years old, Esther Lang is running a small publishing operation out of her senior living community.
A former physical therapist, Lang now lives at Sunrise of Severna Park — and she has written three books for adults, two children’s books, and is hard at work on her next. She sells her titles at the community’s craft shows. For Lang, moving into senior living wasn’t a closing chapter. It was a plot twist.
She is not alone. At Amblebrook at Gettysburg, a 55+ community nearby, residents are pursuing new passions for everything from writing and photography to holistic health businesses.
Across the country, a quiet revolution is reshaping what life inside a nursing home or senior living community actually looks like. Forget the outdated image of shuffleboard and passive afternoons in front of a TV. Today’s communities are putting on Broadway musicals, launching aero gardening programs, hiring “Community Navigators” to help newcomers find their people, and watching residents open Etsy shops from their rooms.
The shift isn’t just feel-good programming. A series of long-term studies from Rush University’s Memory and Aging Project focused on older adults in the Chicago area, found that purpose in life is one of the most robust predictors of health and wellness in old age.
For some, like Esther, that purpose and engagement comes from pursuing new lines of work and entrepreneurial passions.
The numbers are compelling. The stories are more so.
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