Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
U.S. Curling Olympian resides in Columbia Heights Story inside
Health & Exercise January Issue
January 19, 2018
Golden Valley couple live life to the fullest despite disabilities By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer
It would be hard to find a more upbeat, optimistic, self-motivated couple than Paul and Maureen Pranghofer. The Golden Valley couple has many reasons to be otherwise. Both are physically disabled. Paul was born with no arms, and a right leg that is only partially developed. He writes, eats, dresses himself and drives with his feet, and uses a wheelchair. Maureen is blind. She also has Osteogenesis-Imperfecta, known as “brittle bone disorder,” and uses a walker to get around in the house and a power chair when she is outside. Since birth she has had countless numbers of broken bones. After a serious car accident in 1996, both Pranghofers suffered extensive injuries. A benefit given for the Pranghofers following the accident raised money for a new vehicle to replace the Pranghofers’ demolished adapted vehicle, as well as major handicapped accessible remodeling that was needed at their home. After the spinal injury she suffered in the accident, Maureen was unable to walk, stand or use both hands for 11 years. “I started forgiving [hurts from the past] in 2007, and within 24 hours I got my movement back,” Maureen said. Said Paul, “I just bawled the first time I saw her walk.” They have another 12year old adapted van now, but both use Metro Mobil-
ity whenever they can to reach their respective destinations so their van will last longer. Maureen’s newest service dog, 3-year-old Walter, has kept their household lively for the last year. Walter helps Maureen load and unload the washer and dryer, and brings her items on command. He pushes an indoor handicapped button on the wall when he wants to go outside. He is the subject of “The Walter Report” Maureen maintains on Facebook. “I plan to publish a book about him,” Maureen said. Both Paul and Maureen are employed and also volunteer. They are active at the Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove. And they are so valued in their community that their neighbors volunteered to help them remodel their home to be handicapped accessible, so the Pranghofers wouldn’t move away. “Our neighbors found out we were thinking about moving, and asked us what it would take to keep us here,” Paul said. Instead of pursuing the move to Tucson they were considering, Paul said, “Maureen’s dad said we should think about the fantastic support we get from the church and our neighbors. If we moved elsewhere, we’d have to start all over again.” Their neighbors joined forces to donate 1,000 hours of volunteer help to remodel the Pranghofer’s home over a five-month period. “We’ve been blessed with
up in Lester Prairie, has a degree in music therapy and is working on a master’s degree in social work. She started her own Braille It business to transcribe materials into Braille, and now works in sales for
Maureen and Paul Pranghofer of Golden Valley, shown with Maureen’s service dog, Walter, manage a full life of jobs and volunteering, despite their physical limitations. (Photo by Sue Webber) such good, good neighbors,” Paul said. “One did all the drywall and his wife did all the painting. One did the electrical work. Maureen’s brother coordinated all of them. I could afford the materials, but not the labor.” The couple’s backgrounds are impressive: • Paul, a graduate of Marshall University High School in Minneapolis, was a computer programmer for many years. “I could have qualified for disability 30-40 years ago, but I wanted to work,”
Paul said. He now works 17 hours a week at Hy-Vee in New Hope. “My official title is customer service,” Paul said. “I greet shoppers at the front door or wander around and help people find things,” he said. He is in his 37th year of working as a referee for the Minnesota State High School League adapted soccer, floor hockey and softball teams. “I usually work two or three games a week,” Paul said. • Maureen, who grew
WeCo, a firm that employs disabled persons to test websites and see if they’re accessible. “I go into the office once a week for meetings, and to meet with customers,” Maureen said. She also gives motivational speeches, writes music, has produced three CDs, wrote a book in 2005 about her then-service dog called “Ally’s Busy Day,” sings, and plays the guitar and piano. She was a candidate for the Golden Valley City Council in 1997. Both are active with Can
Do Canines Lions Club. Maureen is vice president and Paul is treasurer. Through their church, they are active with Hearts in Action, a group that does hospital visits. “I organize the scheduling,” Maureen said. Also through the church, Paul has been part of a 10-14 day mission trip to Haiti in 10 of the last 14 years. He and Maureen also sponsor two disabled children in Haiti. “One of them saw me writing with my feet and taught himself to do that,” Paul said. “Our church built a special needs home in Port Au Prince,” Paul said. “I really enjoy the trips.” The couple, married for 39 years, met at Camp Courage. They have lived in Golden Valley since 1983. Although they do their own cooking together, they have engaged household help in three areas: • A company to do the lawn work and snowplowing at their home. • A woman to do a thorough housecleaning every other week. • A family friend who comes to their home in between times to change bed linens and do other necessary tasks. A youth group from their church comes to the Pranghofer home on the first Wednesday of the month to lend a hand, as well. “We have really been blessed with wonderful friends from church,” Maureen said. The Pranghofers see no reason to be intimidated by their disabilities. “I’ve always been pretty optimistic,” Paul said. Added Maureen, “You can choose to see the glass half empty or half full. I would much rather look at it as half full.”
Page 2 • Thursday, January 19, 2018
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Curling is sport of choice for Columbia Heights man By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer
John Gordon has enjoyed the sport of curling since 1977, when his exfather-in-law in Superior, Wisconsin, said he was looking for players. “He was a pretty accomplished player,” Gordon said. “I started playing recreationally then. Curling was a very popular game in Superior in the early 1970s. It’s still popular there. It’s a hotbed of curling.” His steady playing and love for the sport resulted in Gordon’s being a two-time Olympian. “When curling became an Olympic sport, there was a special tournament to qualify,” Gordon said. “You qualified by doing well in the state, district and regions.” “When I competed, nobody selected you,” he said. “You formed your own team and qualified or not. It was all decided on the ice.” Now, a committee for U.S. Curling selects the athletes and puts the teams together, he said. “They evaluate you on your onand off-ice ability, compatibility and sports psychology,” Gordon said. He added that while more than 50 countries have curling, only 10 countries make the Olympics. “The host country gets in automatically,” he said.
“The rest of the spots have to be earned.” Gordon was on the first Olympic curling team, the XVIII Winter Olympics (1998) in Nagano, Japan. He was one of 2,176 participants from 72 nations that year. The team captured fourth place. After his team qualified for Japan, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Valentine’s Day front cover showed a photo of Gordon getting a kiss from his wife. He also was a member of the XIX Winter Olympics curling team in 2002, in Salt Lake City, one of 2,400 athletes from 78 nations. That team tied for sixth place. “Those are pretty moving experiences,” Gordon said. “They’re life-changing.” He said most of the curling team players came from Minnesota and Wisconsin, though some were from the East Coast (New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.). “When I played, Wisconsin had the most competitive curlers,” Gordon said. Gordon and his wife moved to Columbia Heights in 1995, built a house behind the high school, and raised four children. They now have four grandchildren. Curling is still part of their lives. Gordon is a
Although special shoes are needed for curling – plus a long-handled brush – Gordon says the rest can be as simple as wearing loose-fitting clothing and member of the Four Sea- finding three other people sons Curling Club at Fo- who want to play. There are mixed leagues gerty Arena in Blaine. “It’s as well as like a reguall-men or lar league all-women that meets teams, acweekly,” he cording to said. “It’s Gordon. been fun. “It’s a Everywhere very acyou go, evtive sport; eryone is you’re movfriendly. It’s ing pretty a lot like good,” Gorgolf. No one don said. roots for “It’s good you to do cardio for badly. Evthe heart eryone gets and lungs.” along.” When he’s Gordon’s not involved wife, Denise, with curla lifelong ing, GorC o l u m b i a The front page of the Star Heights res- Tribune on Valentine’s Day 1998 don says he ident who featured John Gordon getting a does some has done kiss from his wife, Denise, after w o r k i n g some curl- the U.S. Olympic curling team out and a lot of walking, too, is qualified for the semi-finals. ing, and he the team administrator, in charge of making the group’s travel and hotel arrangements for tournaments. A Wisconsin native, Guest Gordon said he worked column originally for 30 years as a printer and pressman. He’s ... by Bob also worked some shorter stints at Home Depot and Ramsey Slumberland, he said. “I’m winding down now,” he said. “Four Who would want to months ago we sold our hurt a sweet little old lady? house. We’re doing home Or steal from a harmless care for my father-in-law, old curmudgeon? Apparwho had hip replacement ently, a lot of people do. surgery.”
swims three times a week. “If you don’t stay active, you get rusty,” he said. “Rust never sleeps. It keeps moving.” Instructional sessions are available at Fogerty Arena for people who want to learn curling, Gordon said. “They have beginning leagues,” he said. WHAT IS CURLING? According to the internet, curling requires a long, narrow sheet of ice with a marked target area, called the house, at each end. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding 42-pound granite stones to the far side of the ice sheet. The objective is to get your stones closest to the center button of the house. The teams alternate throws toward the circular target. The object is to have more stones closer to the center than your opponent after all 16 stones have been thrown. Participants wear curling shoes that are similar to ordinary athletic shoes except that they have dis-
similar soles; the slider shoe has a Teflon sole and is worn by the thrower. The gripper is worn by the thrower on the back foot during delivery and is designed to grip the ice. Players also use curling brushes, usually with hollow tubes, that may have fabric, hog hair, or horsehair heads. According to the internet, the sport is popular all across Canada, in the northern U.S. states, in Scotland, in the Scandinavian countries, in the northern European countries and increasingly in the Far East. It can be played by people of all ages and skill levels with a minimum of equipment, according to the internet. Curling has been an official sport in the Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter Olympics. It currently includes men’s and women’s tournaments. Mixed doubles have been added to the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang County, South Korea.
It’s time to speak out against elder abuse According to the Minnesota Elder Justice Center, one in ten adults over 60 is a victim of elder abuse. Worse yet, a recent study sponsored by Allianz Insurance indicates an even higher incidence. The research found nearly one-third of elder-
ly Americans have been victimized by some form of financial fraud alone. “It’s clear that elder financial abuse is becoming more commonplace, and, it appears to be greater than we thought in scope and impact,” explained Allianz CEO Walter White.To make matters worse, the perpetrators
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Thursday, January 19, 2018 • Page 3
Elder abuse often undetected ABUSE - FROM PREV PAGE of financial exploitation of senior citizens are often family members, friends or other trusted adults who have an existing on-going relationship with the victim. What kind of society robs from its own grandmas and grandpas? The truth is we don’t know the full extent of physical, mental, emotional or financial elder abuse, because masses of cases go
unreported and undetected. Many victims remain in denial, are too embarrassed or ashamed to admit their vulnerability, are afraid of retaliation, or feel the subject is too personal and private (family business) to go public. Other barriers to reporting include ageism and excessive false pride. This lack of reporting is allowing crimes against older people to become an “invisible epidemic.” In many ways, elder
abuse is the new frontier for fraud in America. There are more older adults living longer, with more money than ever before. And many are physically, mentally or emotionally compromised. This makes seniors tempting targets for an assortment of abuses including scams, extortion, identity theft, physical or sexual assault, neglect, bullying, emotional abuse and, even, spiritual abuse. Unfortunately, where one form of abuse exists, there
are usually other forms as well. Based on this data, it’s almost certain that I know someone who has experienced elder abuse. You probably do too. Yet, I don’t know who these victims are. The victims may not know it themselves. Maybe no one knows. Someone should know! That’s the only way that this societal sickness will be surfaced and solved. That’s why the Elder Justice Center wants everyone to know that it’s OK to report and talk about suspected elder exploitation. The signs to
look for range from physical evidence (e.g. bruises, unexplained accidents, etc.) and financial clues (e.g. unusual withdrawals) to changes in personality and social isolation. The experts all agree that anyone who suspects elder abuse should report it. It’s easy—just contact the Minnesota Elder Justice Center at 651-410-9304 or the Department of Human Services at 844-8801574. Elder abuse can only be as rampant as we allow it to be. So we need to step up, stand up and speak up against elder exploi-
tation—and speak loud enough for legislators, lawyers, litigators and law enforcement to hear. Noise attracts attention; and attention is the first step to action. After all, most seniors have spent a good deal of their adult life looking out for others; now, it’s time for others to help look out for them. Bob Ramsey is a lifelong educator, freelance writer and advocate for “Vital Aging.” He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or by email at joyrammini@comcast.net.
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