A Staying Vertical New Product Review
By Marsha Wilson Rappaport

You know those wonderful commercials where Senior Citizens are hanging out with their friends and large loving families? For many senior citizens, those are just wonderful fantasies. According to a study done by AARP in 2018:
“About one-third of U.S. adults age 45 and older report feeling lonely – and, due to an increased number of aging adults, the number is growing”.

ElliQ is a technological solution to keeping seniors’ company. Bear in mind, the world we grew up in included lots of Science Fiction that featured robots. Remember Jetson’s? I wanted the robotic maid – and I still do!

ElliQ is a new technology, that won’t pick up your clothes and do your laundry – but it’s fun and very chatty!

Let’s Get Started:
How secure is the delivery?

You have to sign for delivery. If you can’t get it delivered at home, you have to sign when you pick it up.

How heavy is the box?
Welcome to real life after 50! I am a writer. I wear glasses. I never lifted weights or played football. And I always watch Simone Biles with my mouth open! I read books.
As a result, lifting heavy stuff was never in my wheelhouse. Now that I am over 65, lifting something that can make me fall or hurt my back is an everyday concern.
The box, including the outer box that housed Elli-Q is 15 pounds. In short, if you are comfortable with a 10-pound bag of potatoes you should be o.k. with the box. If not, please call someone to help you.

Does it come with easy-to-understand instructions in the manual?

Now is the time to break into your happy dance!  The answer is YES!  Not only are there two quick start guides – but (drum roll please!) in 16 -point highly readable font.

The ElliQ instructions go step by step. The manuals are a joy! And completely eased my fears of the little white booklet written in four different languages with itty bitty fonts!

Is it easy to set-up?

The unit is essentially plug and play. You plug in the unit ( I would recommend a surge protector).

You go to your internet modem and write down the password.

The screen will display all of your internet connections.

Type in your password and wait for the magic.

What Does It Do Next?

It talks to you. When you order it, it apparently knows your name. So, I was startled when it began with “Hello, Marsha”.

It’s pretty chatty and it begins to list all of the cool things you can do with it.

Other Stuff I tried: What kinds of things can it do?

When ElliQ asked me what I wanted to do, I reacted as if I was looking at a restaurant menu with several pages. I froze. I finally decided that music was safe. I asked for music from the 1980’s. She (has a female voice) served up Ms. Tina Turner at her best.  As  “Better Be Good to Me” blared out, it occurred to me that the unit has an awesome sound system with an adjustable volume button on screen and manually.

Other Stuff I tried:

The unit also has a “chat” feature. You download the ElliQ app and then put in the contact info for a loved one or friend who downloads the app.

Conclusion:

This is a wonderful tech gift for seniors. Where was this invention during COVID? I am sure it would have prevented domestic strife, marital breakdowns and bored restless children.

Moreover, if you aren’t having a “vertical day”, it is perfect when you are sick, bedridden or disabled in some way. All you do is speak to it and it speaks back.

This is a great tech tool for seniors and I highly recommend it!

ElliQ

Elliq.com

[email protected]

1-844-888-1295

Credits

Graphics

Laughingbird Software

Adobe Express

Part 1- Moody Gardens in Galveston

How good is the food in Galveston? Well, in a traditional buffet style conference, you get strange, tasteless, rubbery chicken. At a lunch at the Moody Gardens Herb Fair on Galveston Island this April, you get unctuous, herb infused chicken in a rich cream sauce.

I will share the entire “herbalicious” menu later but let’s take a look at a comparison chicken from the Ritz London Cookbook – a Michelin Star Restaurant.

The Moody Gardens Menu for Annual Gulf Coast Herb Fair and Luncheon –hosted by the Friends of Moody Gardens doesn’t exactly disclose its secrets. The menu simply states Rotisserie Chicken with Garlic and Herbs. In comparison, the Michelin Star Chicken Dish – Poached Chicken Campenoise a la Servitte features poached Chicken with Garlic Herbs. Here’s the big difference, Moody Gardens has a history of taking those calorie and fat heavy dishes into rich versions of French cooking that amplify the taste while reducing your risk of a heart attack.

The menu also included Pan Seared Salmon with Citrus Butter. As a Baby Boomer deeply attached to my A1C, Blood Pressure and Cholesterol numbers – living on an Island surrounded by fish is a big benefit toward my efforts to stay vertical. The salmon, rich in Omega 3’s, was so flavorful, I was tempted to embarrass myself by going back through the buffet line.

The Roasted Beef Medallions with Cremini Mushroom Sauce were certainly the equal to the Fillet of Beef, Braised Morels, Smoked Bone Marrow and Red Wine Sauce in the Ritz London Cookbook. As you can tell from the photos, I created a gravy lake in my plate. The gravy was rich, herb infused and as the commercial states “I put that “stuff” on everything.”

Other delicious sides included perfectly warm sesame seeded rolls and an incredibly complex fresh Spinach salad, with Roasted Pears, Goat Cheese, Dried Cranberries and Candied Walnuts. I tend to overdress salads. This one had me moving the dressing aside. Last, but not least, was the Mini Strawberry Shortcake Cups. The presentation was certainly one worthy of any upscale eatery, and the taste was heavenly.

You might ask, what are my Boomer credentials to make these judgements. The answer is: The sheer grace of God. I was fortunate to have had a father who was both a Dental Surgeon and a big foodie. He blessed me with trips to Michelin Star Restaurants, like the Four Seasons in several cities. Simply put, I know good food when I smell, see and eat it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t explain that the Guest Speaker at the event was Dr. Justin Scheiner, PhD who presented a fascinating presentation on” The Grape State of Texas”. Did you know our state, despite our reputation for Beer and BBQ, is one of the largest wine producers in the U.S.?  That is certainly worthy of a follow-up column.

Moody Gardens has been featuring herb infused cooking since it expanded in 1999 with the construction of the   Moody Gardens Hotel and Spa.  I know because I was literally standing there and writing about it when Bobby Moody, Doug McLeod and Gavin were showing off hard hats and shovels. I used to wonder how their buffet themed restaurant could afford such low prices with such flavorful herb infused food.

In short, any eatery that can produce food that can equal the recipes of Michelin starred Chefs, while providing food the average family or Baby Boomer Foodie can afford deserves a visit from Michelin, James Beard Foundation or their counterparts in the Culinary World.

By Marsha Wilson Rappaport

When my employer told me that the building the nonprofit owned was once owned by a famous Black Woman I was shocked. This February, when the Texas Historical Society granted the building a Subject Marker, I was floored.

I did the application the way I write grant applications. It was evidence-based. If the newspaper article wasn’t in my hand or the book wasn’t in my hand – the fact didn’t go into the application. I started with 3 paragraphs from two books. My final application, after the research, was 26 pages long including 4 pages of references. I didn’t think any of this would impress a panel that received hundreds of applications throughout the great state of Texas. I was blessed with help and encouragement from Julie Peterson Baker, the local THC representative. However, I will confess, I thought she was just being very kind.

This is the discovery that floored me:

Who Was Albertine Hall Yeager?

Albertine Hall Yeager, an African American woman founded the Yeager Children’s Home between 1917 and 1918 in Galveston, Texas. She had so endeared herself to the community that even after her death in 1969, when the new building opened in 1975, the ribbon cutting with Charles Yeager was officiated by then Mayor R.A. Apffel (Kirkpatrick, p. 1, 1975.) Said Apffel: “For if there was ever a project that which represented a cross-section of this community, this is it” (1975, p.1).

The level of love and respect Albertine Yeager commanded in 1975 became apparent when Texas State Senator Aaron “Babe” Schwartz, sponsored a congratulatory resolution – SR-507 for the New Yeager Children’s Home (Schwartz, 1975). There were wires from the Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe; Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby, and United States Congressman Jack Brooks (Kirkpatrick, 1975, p.1). State Representative Andrew Z. Baker, a board member was unable to attend but sent well-wishes (1975, p.1). Texas State Representative Ed J. Harris, whose wife had served on the board was unable to attend but also acknowledged Mrs. Yeager’s contributions (1975, p.1). Moreover, The City of Galveston passed a resolution declaring May 11 -17 “Yeager Home Week” (1975, p.1). (Reference list upon request.)

The Galveston County Daily News noted her courage in their coverage of this event. Angela Wilson who wrote an editorial also noted her courage without disclosing her own.

I was the Black woman who preceded Angela when I worked for the Daily News 33 years ago. I can tell you that journalism was a “good ole boy” club. There was a reason that Walter Chronkite had no female peers. What Angela, I and Ms. Yeager have in common is courage.

Right now, with COVID maybe waning and war drums beating, courage bolstered by faith is what we all need.

I started this blog and my podcast, with the idea that I would talk about things that would help seniors cheer up. Getting old takes a whole lot of courage.

Albertine’s story about a brave Black woman who strove for inclusion, rather than segregation is an inspiration.

I am slowly moving toward grabbing a friend and riding the trolley on the seawall. Laugher,  love, and faith is certainly the best way to face our troubles. I need to step up and make Albertine proud.

This image is from my personal paid subscription with the Daily News.

By Marsha Wilson Rappaport

By sheer accident of birth, my DNA has ties to both Juneteenth and the Tulsa Race Massacre. My maternal mixed-race family settled before 1865 on Galveston Island. My African American paternal family lived 50 miles from Tulsa, in Reeves Edition, the Black section of Muskogee, Oklahoma at the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre. I was blessed to know both of my grandmothers for decades. And yet, I did not hear the word “Juneteenth” until the mid-1980’s. Moreover, I learned about the Tulsa Massacre on HBO’s Watchman at the age of 68.

I come from an extraordinary family of well-educated women who received that education during a time when it was tough to come by as a person of color. My maternal grandmother, born in 1900, would tell me about ‘Freedom Day” in Galveston when everyone had watermelon and red soda. But she also told me that her grandmother Capiana’s husband, Abraham was an escaped slave from Richmond, Texas. He was a Merchant Seaman, and although he brought his wife Capiana back from Mexico, he stayed at sea until “Freedom Day”, less he be returned to slavery.
I met the late State Representative Al Edwards, in the mid-1980s. When he told me about Juneteenth, my initial reaction was horror. I was shocked that the people here were slaves two years longer than they should have been after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed. It was not until this year when the Juneteenth Legacy Project started that I realized “Freedom Day” was actually “Juneteenth”.

No one in my family ever mentioned the Tulsa Race Massacre to me. My grandmother, like my father, did explain that the Klu Klux Klan was present in Muskogee. My father endlessly explained that his motivation to get out of Oklahoma and go to Howard University was tied to Klan Lynchings. But the elder I spent the most time with, my father’s sister Aunt Pocahantas never mentioned it.

My Aunt Pocahantas was so accomplished that she has a cultural center at the Tulsa Public Library named after her. She also lived 3 miles from the site of the Tulsa Massacre on one side and 3 miles from the purported mass burial site on the other.

When we would visit her, no one in my family would sleep in her guest room. It was a small room, featuring a beautiful peach quilted bed with a wall-to-wall Mahoney dresser dominating one wall. When I was about eight or nine, I asked why I could not sleep in the guest room. She simply said, “a lot of people died here.” Of course, because I was literally one of the most precocious children on the planet, the challenge of sleeping in a haunted room was one I would accept. Throughout my life, until my last visit to see her in Tulsa just prior to her death, the “haunted room” was “my room”.

My reaction to the HBO series was intense. The movie featured planes firing on the fleeing, screaming Black residents. I put the episode on record and turned off the television. In tears, I could only see that this depiction would indicate that an “American Guernica” took place well before the Nazis helped kill the Spanish. I begin googling the Tulsa massacre, sat stunned, and started to cry. I could almost see my Aunt Pokies face when she told me “A LOT OF PEOPLE DIED HERE.” I suddenly had the stark realization that it turned out to be the understatement of the century.

Why the Silence?
During the past few months, while watching the documentaries about Juneteenth and the Tulsa Race Massacre I have tried to ascertain the reason for the gaps in history and the silence about those events.
In my late maternal grandmother’s case, she may not have been exposed to the concept of Juneteenth because her family was mixed race. Her mother was dead, and she was raised by her grandmother from Mexico. Abraham, her grandmothers’ husband, knew enough to keep himself safe, but by all accounts, after the 1900 Storm became mentally unstable. My grandmother left the Island with her grandmother and moved to Chicago in 1915.

However, the silence of my paternal grandmother, my father, and my aunt remain a mystery. My paternal grandmother was a very religious woman, very soft-spoken. When I was around her, she would tell me stories or let me play with the chickens. She was not a “bad news” kind of person. My father was a baby when the massacre happened. By the time he could read, the news was probably buried.

My Aunt Pokie, however, was 11 years old at the time of the massacre. Like my father, and like me she could read at an early age and tended to be a voracious reader. The Black communities in Tulsa and Muskogee had a lot of interaction. There is every chance she knew about the massacre as a child. By the time she was an adult and had risen to become a Senior School Administrator in the Tulsa School System, there was no chance she did not know. In any case, hiding it from me, the most inquisitive child in the universe must have been tough on all of them.

Racism affects each generation differently. I had grown up in a time of hope. I had watched Martin Luther King, Jr. march on television. Fortunately, I was born to middle-class parents in Northwest Indiana. Moreover, because I was born in the right town, at the right time. Myself and my friends were all “woke” before “woke was a trending topic”. I attended Benjamin Banneker Elementary School, named after a famous Black author and surveyor. Our principal had served as a Tuskegee Airman. Our teachers were all Black, superbly educated, and dedicated to making us the best of the best. Our books and our surroundings reflected the achievements of people of color in America. What is now being called “critical race theory” was called “history”. We knew the basics: the Native Americans were slaughtered, most of us were descendants of slaves who were in bondage for hundreds of years and Black, Brown and Yellow people had to fight to move forward in America.

We all knew about the Klan. At one point, Indiana had elected a Governor who was openly a Klansman. However, we lived on a block, in a northern city, where no Klansman would dare ride down the street populated by Black Doctors, Dentists, Teachers, and other professionals.

The USA was a tough gig that you had to survive. We were considered the lucky ones and it was our job to “represent”. And as we grew older and had to go out into the real world, that’s when it hit. Our first wake-up call happened when our friend, the Valedictorian of the prestigious big African-American High School, committed suicide after his freshman year at Harvard. He was academically solid and didn’t have financial problems because he got a full ride. At his funeral, one of us finally whispered our fears: “Maybe something bad happened to him at Harvard because he was Black”.

My own reaction to having to “represent the Black race” was different. I tested into Howard as a Sophomore. But, by mid-semester, I realized that I was tired, and I didn’t want to be a mixture of Mary McLeod Bethune and Shirley Chisholm. I was a published poet already. I wanted to become a combination of “Gidget” and Phyllis Wheatley. I was “woke”, but I desperately wanted to go back to sleep.

My paternal grandmother, my father, and my aunt, grew up in a decade where the Tulsa Race Massacre had occurred and had somehow been pushed out of memory. The fear generated by an act of that level of savagery in the modern world had to have become burned into the souls of all the Black people in Oklahoma. It was an action so ugly, that it had to be the mother of all generational traumas.

I can only hope that all three of my elders did not want me to know because they didn’t want to pass on that fear. They wanted me to be fearless. Perhaps their instincts were right because I never stopped being that little girl who dared to sleep in a haunted room.

By Marsha Wilson Rappaport

Here’s a news flash: if you were never a skinny kid, a skinny teen or a skinny grown-up – there won’t be a magical skinny fairy to save you when you are over 65! Eating healthy is a challenge when you work for a living. Eating healthy during a pandemic takes on added layers of anxiety.

Trauma 1: Going to the grocery store.

Even carefully planned, list in hand, shopping for food is a trip fraught with fears. My PPE tote is filled to the brim with the essentials: extra masks, cute little blue nitrite gloves, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes carefully separated in a small plastic zipper bag.

Trauma 2: Getting everything on your list.

I kid you not, finding out I forget the mustard sends me into a tizzy.

Trauma 3: Getting vegetables I have to slice and dice in order to stay on track.

Trauma 3 has proven to be a real sticking point. I watch a lot of cooking shows. I am mesmerized by recipes I don’t have the talent to cook with ingredients I cannot possibly afford – even if I could find them locally.
That being said, I do understand the basics. And I know that in order to vary my diet, I need to keep it flavorful. For example, I know that the best way to dress up my uninspiring affordable ground beef patty is to artfully top it with a pile of caramelized onions.

Within the past few years, I’ve upped my game. I found out that my “brown thumb syndrome” vanishes what I use one of those cute Aero Gardens with water. I have grown lots of Basil and other green stuff to take my affordable ground beef and medium-sized chickens to the next level.

Alas, there is peril built into the game. You know those flashy knife skills you see on Iron Chef? Ever watch in amazement as they dismantle a hunk of cow, or filet a big fish in mere seconds? Yea – well that’s not a nearly 70-year-old woman who has been nearsighted since she was three!
As a result, as I have gotten older, I began to start looking for clever ways to slice my onions wafer-thin, without adding my finger to the pile.

1. A good Mandolin Slicer – Surprise, as the onion gets thinner, even with the cute, little, spike holder, your fingers get real close to a really sharp blade. Got pricked by the spikes on the holder and cut by the blade.
2. A Spiralizer – Great on Zucchini! Tears onions to messy shreds. Put up on shelf, until I grow-up enough to appreciate zucchini – the age I’ll be when I appreciate Kale.
3. Ceramic Knives – Wonderful for the big start. Still a sharp blade when you really want thin stuff.

Finally, I got a hint from one of the Foodie Gurus. One night, while I was wrestling with my insomnia, I saw Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, talking about a “safe way to slice”. I was excited. Here was a guy, I had nothing in common with except hair. He is the epitome of New York chic, well-dressed, totally pressed award-winning Chef with a flawlessly styled head of white hair. I have white hair and I needed whatever he was selling so I wouldn’t add a trip to the Emergency Room during a pandemic to my list of adventures. I know it makes no sense – but this one Iron Chef has seen into my soul.

So, I did the online search and found out who was marketing his neat invention. I bought some really fresh, sexy onions and then checked the tracking numbers every morning until my package came.

And Voila!
Piles and piles of thinly sliced onions were produced without a single nick or cut. I even washed my new gadget and cleaned it without fear. My lowly ground beef was totally elevated as I joyfully positioned it on a bed of egg noodles slathered with “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”.

I know in these troubled times; it seems like a small thing. However, this persistent anxiety was one that has haunted me a long time. It didn’t just start when I got old. Actually, I was so nearsighted as a little girl that I was teased because I used to trip up the stairs in church. Clumsy is real thing – that unlike wine, does not get better with age.

It’s a small victory! I’d like to suggest you look around, look past the darkness and find one you can celebrate. These days every little win-win helps!

By Marsha Wilson Rappaport

Hear My Interview with Laura Rich, on the Texas Standard about Masks on August 27, 2020 – All Over the Great State of Texas:

LISTEN HERE

My Mask: How This Galveston Senior Is ‘Keeping It Rolling’ In The Pandemic

The Rant Continues Here:

We didn’t really have germs when I was kid. If your friend had a runny nose, first you would ask if they had washed their hands. If your friend would then drag their sleeve across their runny nose, then you would run away shouting: “Don’t touch me – I don’t want your cooties”.

Years later, armed with college degrees, I fully understand words like “germs”, “virus” and “bacteria”. My educated brain absorbs the scientific jargon on the evening news and understands the endless alerts about COVID-19 in print and on the internet.

My senior citizen brain checks for achy body parts and new signs of infection every time a new symptom is announced. And yet, when words like pandemic and epidemic are being tossed around my six-year old self emerges shouting: “Cooties – lots of Cooties”.

Therefore, on behalf of my inner child, I am begging everyone to quell my hysteria by wearing a mask.

When I venture out to the grocery store, all masked up and wearing my cute, blue nitrite gloves, I just want you to stand six feet away.
I am too nervous to look at you to see if you are wearing a fancy N-94 Mask, a pleated blue mask or a pair of repurposed underpants. I am not a mask fashion maven and the grocery store is not Operation Mask Runway! I just don’t want to glance back at you, and see you aren’t wearing a mask.

Moreover, I don’t care what political party you belong to or what conspiracy theories you subscribe to. Nor do I care about the color of your skin, the language you speak or the food group you belong to.
Because, my friends, COVID-19 doesn’t care. This bug represents color blind, deaf and mute random death incarnate. It scares me that months later, some of the smartest people in the world, aren’t even sure how it travels and how fast it will kill you.

All this is pretty simple for me at this point in the 2020 Epidemic Horror Show:

Stand back – Mask-up- and don’t give me Cooties!
Thank you,

A grey-haired Senior Citizen with a hysterical inner six-year old running the show!

by Marsha Wilson Rappaport

The onset of COVID resulted in weeks of my staring in the mirror with my “deer in the headlights” face. My brain had frozen. My fingers followed suit. What could I possibly say that would uplift others that would combat my personal fears.

My personal fears were pretty serious. In addition to the fear of a killer virus, my day job was finding grants that would keep the homeless safe during a pandemic. My vocation was writing, glowing articles about food and attractions in my little tourist town. My town was shut down, my friends were facing the loss of their businesses and my food supply had been cut off. I was trapped in my little cottage, hiding behind my facemask, having the ultimate fear festival.

Weeks later – it occurred to me. What would make me feel better? A great restaurant meal- delivered! What about other Seniors, trapped inside! Once again, a great restaurant meal- delivered!

Seems like a simple thing. But if you are a senior, on a fixed income – not so fast! That wasn’t easy for me, and it wasn’t easy for a lot of my aging friends.

The second light bulb went on – why not do something – rather than just say something.

So..I developed the RESPECT Project. I would buy a meal for a Senior in the community who had supported others with little recognition and was living modestly. I would buy meals and have them delivered from restaurants that needed the business.

My first gift was to an African-American role model named Pat Tate. Tate was one of those people that had put together events, served on all kinds of boards and vastly improved the quality of life in our community. I wrote about her a lot. She was quiet mover and shaker in developing our Annual Juneteenth Parade. She lead “Save R Hood” a community effort to help our underserved neighbors. She was a tireless worker at her parish of St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church. I got a call every year for their BBQ Dinner and did a story about her son who has gone on to tout his BBQ on television. She was kinda of quietly everywhere making life better for the rest of us. And she did it all without messing up some of the prettiest hair I’d ever seen. Her hair, unlike mine, seemed immune to the Galveston humidity – it was a wonder.

During her senior years, she fought and beat down cancer twice. Recently, she had lost her mother and she was having a tough time. I choose her, when I realized that her Facebook posts were reflecting her moods. Heck, even beating me badly at “Words With Friends” wasn’t cheering her up.

So I hoped Pat, would enjoy a treat during a time of fear and isolation, my friends in the restaurant business could put a few more bucks in the coffers and I would write about it and feel less isolated and fearful myself. When I spoke to her after her meal, she seem happy. Win-Win-Win.

I asked Pat if she would enjoy a meal from Mosquito Café a family owned restaurant in Galveston and she said yes. Mosquito Café is locally owned by Steven and Patricia Rennick. Their daughter, Kyla Wright, the Managing Partner and CFO of Mosquito Café and Patty Cakes Bakery was just named in the “40 under 40” list in the Galveston County Daily News.

It all worked out fine. She had a meal to eat and a meal to save. Both were shrimp based. Nothing picks up your spirits like a Gulf Coast meal with our favorite crustacean.

Here’s the big fantasy. I want to start a movement. I want everyone to look around – find a senior friend or relative and have a great meal delivered to them.

Not going to change the world – not going to stop the virus -but it’s a really cool, kind thing to do!

Marsha Pre-Covid

Marsha During COVID

Save an Old, Wise Soul

MASK-UP!

Support our Efforts: Click the Image to Donate

By Marsha Wilson Rappaport

I am one of those. If I pick a four-leaf clover, I will get poison ivy. That being announced at the onset, I can explain my current plight. I am a journalist with a very depressing social service day job. Several months prior to the COVID-19 crisis, I turned my blog into a podcast. Both are called “Staying Vertical”. I am over 65 and I like to rant about stuff that drives me crazy. Much like one of my idols, the late Andy Rooney, I want to know why there are so many things in the modern world that don’t work properly or even make sense.

Once you get older some of that stuff really works your nerves. I have ranted about why all of my tech is fashionably black, which makes it impossible to real the dials or buttons without a search light. I recounted my brave move to go to trivia night with trendy nerds who wore flannel and had beards. I write book reviews. I generally, just amuse myself, so that I won’t focus on my arthritis and long stays in the “reading room” because I have IBS.

I was kinda on a roll by January. The podcast was running on a local radio station and was accepted on all of the major outlets. By February, I was tuning in to iTunes, IHeart and Spotify to croon myself to sleep after I took my blood pressure meds. It was fun project and I was looking for sponsors. My podcast was designed to cheer all of us up by pointing out how weird life gets when your hair turns gray.

AND then, the thing happened. The strange nature of my situation hit me on that day a young man on the beach refused to leave because “ only old people “ get the virus. The messages kept coming. Day after day of broadcasts begging people to social distance so they won’t kill an old lady like me.

Can I share this with you? There is NOTHING – remotely funny about the idea of the grim reaper, bouncing a red spiked green ball, sitting in your bedroom corner while holding a sign that says “old folks” . Somehow my next podcast, where I explain my quest to find a safe way to slice onions without risking my less than steady fingers with big stainless steel knife seemed real unimportant.

March came and went. My writers block had gone into full lock-down, just as I had to do to avoid what seemed to me had evolved into the worst, bad horror movie ever. I had to admit it – I was afraid. Trips to the grocery store had become traumatizing. Retrieving the mail, required the repurposing of dishwashing gloves and a disinfectant spray staging area.

The rich imagination that was whining about senior moments and aggravation had turned on me. Everyday had become the Passover scene from the classic “Ten Commandments”. I worried about that creepy green mist, dropping from the sky and floating near my door. This fantasy was made even more unbearable because there were no guest appearances from Charlton Heston or John Derek telling it was going to be o.k.

April is here. I owe myself a Podcast. I think I’m going to talk about why we need brave and honest leadership during this crisis. It’s not really funny – but if you’re an old lady being stalked by the grim reaper – you might as well say your peace!!