By C.J.
“Really great people make you feel like you, too, can be great.” — Mark Twain
One way she achieved this is that for over 10 years Noreen identified many people who she classified as great. She then gifted us with this column and stories to appreciate their talents and inspire the reader. If you missed some of these columns you can still access them at TPGdailyonline.com whenever you feel like being uplifted.
Noreen keeps up her friendships after the columns are published. Many of those celebrated in her columns attend the 90’s Club that she began in 2012 and continues to coordinate every month. The purpose of the club is to inform and entertain. Starting with seven members, it has grown to over fifty, some of whom have become centenarians.
Of the seven founding members five continue to be active, one has moved to Arizona to be closer to family, and one has gone to the nonphysical. Noreen has a twinkle in her eye when she says “None of us will get out of here alive.” The twinkle communicates well her philosophy of living life to it’s fullest!
When new members arrive at The 90’s Club and are welcomed by Noreen and other members, the atmosphere is one of comfort and hospitality. Here is a place to come together and make new friends; an opportunity to be with your peers and have fun. She says that attitudes about aging are quite varied. While most announce their age without hesitation, some prefer not to disclose their age having encountered ageism which otherwise remains inactive. Experiences of ageisms that they share are people talking louder or using “elder speak” much like baby talk. Another sign is adults that are only a couple of decades younger being strangely cautious about the jokes they tell as if being 90 steals ones sense of humor.
Turning 50 seems to be a pivotal time for many. In fact, at 50 Noreen decided to do a few of the things that had intrigued her in the past. That was when she enrolled at Cabrillo to study Library Science and then went on the be a Middle School Librarian. Six years of pleasure with those youngsters propelled her to spend more time with teens and beyond by setting up a delicatessen in her neighborhood. Six years later the successful expansion of her business made it ready to sell — a logical time to get her real estate license and explore some other business interests. After retiring from that, she became a newspaper reporter in her Paso Robles neighborhood, again lighting the corner where she lived.
Another pivotal time for Noreen was the age of 85 when she faced the inevitable and made all necessary funeral arrangements, and then put them out of her mind. “This left me free to enjoy this time, smell roses, learn to paint, write without deadlines, sit in the morning sunshine and savor a cup of coffee.” A few other highlights on her agenda these days — art lessons, playing Bridge, and attending water aerobics.
“Being a senior is not necessarily the evening of one’s life, it can also be the dawn of a new becoming.” – NAS
Noreen, thank you for showing the way.