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Discovering The Mature Lifestyle

Don’t let hearing loss inhibit your travels Column inside

Travel & Adventure

Dec. 14 & 15, 2017

December Issue

Travels to Mexico, Europe are basis for Golden Valley author’s books that needed cosmetic improvements. W e lik e the di versity. W e lik e Faye Ber ger and her being in a foreign place. husband, W ilt, li ve in Figuring it out is lik e a Golden Valley for nine game. Mexico has been months of the y ear. such an ad venture f or Since 2005, they ha ve us.” spent the other thr ee WRITING: A months each y ear in COMPANION Mexico. TO TRAVEL “Wilt and I started Faye Ber ger is no short-term missions to Mexico in the 1990s , stranger to tr avel. Also through Calv ary Lu- in the 1990s , she and theran Chur ch,” F aye Wilt, w ho is an ar chisaid. “We gr ew to lo ve tect, took F aye’s dad, Russell E. Albr echt of Mexico.” They have driven the Morgan, Minnesota, 4,600 miles r ound trip on a 10-da y riding trip in all the other y ears across Eur ope to r ethey’ve gone , b ut this trace Russell’s infantry route during his service year they’ re going to in W orld W ar II. The fly. trip, w hich occurr ed Their mission trips began a t an ar ea in after Russell became a the mountains outside widower, included Russell’s meeting with a Mexico City . “They didn’t ha ve a pla y- German v eteran w ho ground, and w e con- became his pen pal. Their trip pr ovided structed one ,” F aye the gr oundwork f or a said. “Ther e w ere no book Faye Berger pubHome Depots there, so lished titled “Finding we used r ough w ood Foxholes.” Her first and old tir es. It w as a book, titled “Gumprough and tumble project, b ut it has serv ed tion,” contains lessons the comm unity r eally on old a ge and loneliness tha t she learned well.” In the pr ocess, F aye from her dad. “I had al ways been said, “W e learned to on the phone with m y meet the locals , spr ead dad, ga thering stories out and got to kno w about him and his budthe cities and the coast. dies and the friends he And we ended up b uymade tr aveling ar ound ing a very humble house the country,” Faye said. there. It was a fast deci“He w as a ca ptivating, sion to buy an old place

By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer

small-town guy, a greatt ll t storyteller. He al ways could find a positi ve spin for everything.” She used a ta pe r ecorder during their trip to Eur ope, to ca pture her dad’s stories a bout being on the fr ont lines in 1944-45, being wounded twice , being hospitalized after the Battle of the Bulge, and receiving the Br onze Star. “I w as e xtremely lucky to be a ble to travel with m y dad when he w as 82, dri ving thr ough Eur ope with a ta pe r ecorder,” Faye said. “He w as a common small-to wn guy, doing his duty. He was in a foxhole for six days. It ended up to be a story a bout ho w the soldiers f ound f ood and sleep , and ho w he made friends. He was a long way from Morgan,

Minnesota.” Mi i t ” The soldiers caught and killed pigeons , holding them o ver the fire and then ea ting them, her dad recalled. Russell r ecalled r eturning home with no fanfare and r esuming his life as a small-to wn grocer, Faye said. “But he brought back first-class values,” Faye said. “He sa w America at its best. He saw people pulling to gether to support the war effort.” After gr owing up in Morgan, F aye became a home economics major at the University of Minnesota. Along the way, she and her family hosted f oreign e xchange students fr om Guatemala and V ietnam. She w orked as a la w firm par alegal f or 30 years, prior to r etiring in 2004. “R etirement

i id d with iith h m y dad d d coincided dying in 2003, and us buying the Me xican property,” she said, adding that Wilt retired in 2007. The tw o ha ve four children and seven grandchildren. Faye said she became interested in stud ying successful a ging after taking a class on a ging families a t the Uni versity of Minnesota. “Aging is r eally a series of losses,” she said. “No one is imm une. Positive a ging is ho w we deal with those losses. It becomes a way of thinking of the glass as half full.” She is convinced that veterans’ telling their wartime stories can bring healing to them, as w ell as inspiring those who hear the stories. “We need to start those con versations,” Faye said. “P erhaps

ABOVE: Wilt and Faye Berger are pictured at the grand opening of the playground their team built with rough timbers and tires at Mission Mazahua, near Mexico City. LEFT: Faye and Wilt Berger are shown at their casa in Mexico. America can get back to the pa triotism it once had.” When the Bergers are at home in Golden Valley, they continue a 35year tradition of hiking at Lak e Harriet with a gr oup of friends a t 7:30 a.m. on Sa turday mornings. They’ve also organized hiking trips at Lak e Superior, Faye said. “The YMCA is lik e our second home ,” she said. “We ar e so dedicated to e xercising five days a week.” She’s still writing and plans to publish a book on Mexico next year.

Hearing loss shouldn’t keep seniors from traveling The Hearing Loss Association of America r eports tha t tw othirds of Americans over 70 suf fer withh some form of hearing g deficit. Tha t’s most t of us . Hearing loss is now the third mostt common health issue in the country. Unfortunately, seniors and others af fected think their tr avelling da ys ar e over because of their dis-

ly ha ve the time , flexibility and r esources to tr avel and the e xperience to kno w w here ... by Bob they w ould lik e to Ramsey go. Think “Buck et List.� Likewise, toda y ability. But they’re wrong wrong. ability The truth is tha t the is the best time e ver f or travelers with hearing ages 50, 60, 70, and beyond are often prime time problems. Accommodations to mak e tr aveling for tr aveling. After all, this is the phase of life easier for those with hearwhere many people final- ing loss are commonplace,

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thanks to the Americans Disability Act. Adjusting to meet the tr avel needs of those w ho don ’t hear well isn’t just a nice thing to do an ymore; it’ s the law. And gr eat pr ogress has been made in a short time. For example, a growing number of pub lic spaces and places , including air terminals, taxi ca bs and theaters are now equipped with hearing loops . This

technology deli vers customized sound directly to individual assisted hear ing de vices and allo ws hearing aid users to pick up sound fr om a distant source such as a sta ge or movie screen. More importantly than better accommoda tions, however, is the fact tha t seniors suf fering fr om hearing loss may need the benefits of tr avel mor e than anyone. Hearing loss

is a silent af fliction that can r ob people of their ability to w ork, socializ e, enjoy perf ormances, par ticipate in comm unity activities and sta y connected with famil y, friends and the w orld a t lar ge. Ultimately, it can lead to separ ation, loneliness , isolation and depression. That’s w here tr avel comes in. T ravel is empowering and liber ating. It connects people. Travel entertains, instructs , informs and inspires people

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Travel & Adventure December Issue

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle

Dec. 14 & 15, 2017

Travel to sacred places is highlight of Kim Vu’s retirement By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer

Kim Vu was a pharmacist when she li ved in V ietnam. After she came to the United Sta tes in 1990, she w as hired as a phar macist technician a t Uni versity Hospital, where she worked for 19 years. After she r etired in 2009, she began tr aveling –– to India f our times , and also to My anmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. “I visited the sacred places with a group of Vietnamese Buddhists belonging to the Temple named Dieu Pha p in California,� Vu said. “In India, w e visited the place where Bud dha was born. It is a place of enlightenment, of teaching.� The mission of the T emple of Dieu Pha p, loca ted near San Ga briel, Calif ornia, is “to help spr ead the Dharma of Bud dhism so that e veryone can e xperience e verlasting peace and happiness,� accor ding to its website. “Dieu Phap Temple welcomes everyone to come and learn about Buddhism.� This y ear, V u said, her travels ha ve tak en her to China (Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xian, Guilin, Yangtze Ri ver cruise) and

Hong Kong. “In September 2016 I took a cruise named Dalmatian Coasts to Cr oatia and Montenegr o, and to Malta and Italy where I saw Venice, Sicil y, Na ples and Rome with m y thr ee sisters and three cousins,� Vu said. “And I will go this Christmas to south Calif ornia to attend the w edding of m y grandniece in Los Angeles.� She tak es photos e verywhere she goes , to pr eserve the memories of her travels. “I visit r elatives, and I have a lot of friends spr ead all o ver the U .S., in Ne w York, Philadelphia, Florida, Oklahoma, Sea ttle, Calif ornia and Texas,� Vu said. When she isn ’t tr aveling, Vu said, she enjoys activities with the Bud dhist temple and the V ietnamese Senior Club. And she’s busy on her computer and iPhone . “I use m y computer most of the time, with YouTube and Facebook,� she said. At the Brightondale/ Meadowood Shor e in Ne w Brighton, w here V u li ves, “she lo ves going on trips with us lik e ri ver cruises , city ad ventures, tours ,� said Su Stigney , dir ector of programs a t Brightondale/ Meadowood Shor es. “Her e she enjo ys our e xercise sessions and the theme dinner

events.� Vu has maintained contact with all seven of her siblings, since all of them have moved to the United Sta tes or Canada. “Thr ee of them are pharmacists and two are medical doctors ,� V u said. “I’m luck y I ha ve an educated family.� Even though she w as trained as a phar macist in Vietnam, V u said, “I came here too la te, a t the a ge of 60, to be a phar macist. So I went to comm unity college to become a pharmacy technician.� Vu has a son in Minneapolis, a daughter in Rochester and a granddaughter. About Vietnamese Social Services of Minnesota The mission of V ietnamese Social Services of Minnesota (VSS) is to maintain the identity of the Minnesota Vietnamese community while ad dressing the basic economic, educa tional, and health needs of refugees and immigrants statewide. According to the VSS website, elders w ere tr aditionally v enerated in Asian cultures, and gi ven r oles of authority within their families and comm unities. In the United States, the elders have lost m uch of this special status and consequently they feel isola ted, dejected,

Along her travels, Vu has captured photographs from her favorite trips like Beijing and Suzhou, named Venice of the East because of its canals. and unneeded. F or man y, the sense of depr ession is compounded b y po verty or physical and psy chological frailties. Leaders in the Vietnamese community founded VSS in 1987 as a non-pr ofit mutual assistance organization. VSS has since gr own into a multi-service a gency with programs in health education and pr omotion, y outh development, elder services , English pr oficiency, and employment and job tr aining. All of these pr ograms work together to equip and

empower indi viduals and families across the life span as they seek to become independent and full y functioning members of American society. Although VSS w as originally or ganized to ad dress the needs of V ietnamese refugees and immigr ants, the a gency has since begun to a pply its e xperience and expertise in V ietnamese r esettlement to meet the needs of ne wer r efugee gr oups, such as the K aren fr om Burma and the Somali. VSS has in r ecent y ears initiated

a number of projects targeting Karen and Somali r efugees, and hired several social workers from those communities. One w ay the Elder Pr ogram w orks to impr ove elders’ quality of life is b y providing opportunities to come to gether to socializ e, have fun, and learn. T wo projects –– Elder Cir cle and Adult Da y Care –– offer group gatherings featuring table games, congr egate meals, seasonal celebrations, field trips , and w orkshops on topics of inter est to senior citizens. Because of langua ge and other barriers , r efugee and immigrant elders ma y ha ve difficulty accessing the ar ray of health, economic, and social benefits and r esources a vailable to senior citizens. The bilingual Elder Program staff members provide interpretation, application assistance , and other help –– w hatever is needed to assist elders connect with resources tha t can impr ove their quality of life . The program also educa tes and coaches the elders’ childr en on w ays they can pr ovide direct car e f or their elder ly parents or help them access community resources. VSS is a t 277 Uni versity Ave. W . in the F rogtown area of St. P aul. F rogtown and its surr ounding neighborhoods are home to many refugees and immigr ants residing in the east metr opolitan area.

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Hearing loss shouldn’t keep seniors from traveling of all a ges. T raveling is the perfect w ay to b urst out of isolation. That’s why many audiologists ad vise their clients to tak e ad vantage of toda y’s exciting and limitless tr avel opportunities. It’s easier than most people with hearing problems think. Both hearing specialists and tr avel ad visors agree tha t the f ollowing tips can mak e tr avel ad ventures even mor e tr ouble-free and more fun f or those with hear ing loss: • Be sur e all assisted hear -

ing devices are in top working condition. • P ack e xtra ba tteries and chargers. • T ry to use air ter minals equipped with hearing loop technology. • Select sea ts in the least noisy section of the aircraft. • Ask sea t-mates to r epeat pilot and flight a ttendant announcements. • R eserve hotel r ooms with non-auditory alar m systems (e.g. flashing lights) • Ship lugga ge dir ectly to

your hotel ahead of time to avoid carousel confusion. • Get as m uch trip inf ormation (e .g. ca b r ates, tr ansit schedules , ad dresses and phone numbers) as possible in advance. • Review restaurant websites in ad vance to check f or hear ing-friendly dÊcor (e .g. noise absorbent ma terials, booths or seating backed by walls, not windows). • Ne ver hesita te to ask f or help. Good Samaritans are everywhere.

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Travel trul y is a windo w to the world that should be open to everyone — including those with hearing loss . “Have hearing aid, will tr avel� might w ell be the modern mantr a for anyone with hearing pr oblems. R ead m y lips: Don ’t let hearing loss k eep y ou from traveling. Bon voyage!

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