Spectrum Fall 2014 by Alive Publishing Group

H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S | R E L AT I O N S H I P S | C O M M U N I T Y

Enriched Senior Living FALL 2014

It IS a

Wonderful

Life

A PUBLICATION OF SPECTRUM RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES, LLC

Experts in Downsizing & Senior Moving CONVENIENT, STRESS-FREE MOVING

Spectrum Retirement Communities, LLC offers flexible, affordable month-to-month rental apartment homes, enabling residents to enjoy the luxury they desire without a prohibitive financial commitment or buy-in fee. Lifestyle options include independent living, assisted living, transitional memory care and memory care. Spectrum Retirement Communities, LLC has multiple locations in 11 states across the country. To learn more or to find a community near you, call 888-516-2188 or visit us online at www.spectrumretirement.com

Free In-Home Consultation • Customized Floor Plan Licensed Professional Movers • Insured Organize, Sort and Downsizing Professional Packing • Unpack and Set Up Estate Sales • Clean Outs & Trash Hauling 317-748-4633 • www.SrLifeTransitions.com

John Sevo MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jeff Kraus MANAGING DIRECTOR

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We want to ensure that you have the resources to do what you want next in life. We will work as diligently to help grow and protect your money as you did earning it. LIFE WELL PLANNED.

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Welcome to

Spectrum AS ANOTHER SUMMER DRAWS to a close and we begin to gather ourselves and our thoughts inward for autumn, we pause to reflect. In our nation’s Declaration of Independence, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are clearly stated as inalienable rights. In reflecting on this issue of Spectrum Enriched Senior Living, it seems those rights emerge as a common theme. What makes us happy? For some people, it is spending time with loved ones. Enjoy the story of Scott Thornbro and his dad in “The Ties That Bind” (page 10). To preserve memories, you might want to consult the article, “Keep Memories Alive” (page 16). Our Distinguished Resident, Gustav Lundberg, was on a long extended quest for those inalienable rights, across war-torn Europe, to South America and finally to Staten Island where he made his career. You can read his story on page 14. And to really dig in to the subject of happiness, did you know that the older we grow, the happier we get? Lots of research to back that up. Read all about it in “The Last Laugh” (page 8). As we ponder our rights as citizens, nothing reminds us of the value of those rights as much as our heroes from the “Greatest Generation” (page 18). This issue we visit with Lew Davis whose childhood dreams of going to sea turned into a distinguished career with the U.S. Navy.

MANAGING DIRECTORS JEFF KRAUS AND JOHN SEVO

Spectrum works extremely hard to make sure the residents of our communities are happy. That’s why we place so much emphasis on the move-in process; our coordinators visit our new residents in their homes before they move to a Spectrum community, to help make important decisions about how much to bring and where it will go. Read about this exciting, and fun, process in “Your Next Adventure” (page 20). And what about liberty? To many, the sense of liberty comes from the ability to make important choices about our lives. It’s not fun to talk to your loved ones about what kind of health care you want if you aren’t able to make decisions for yourself. But it’s important. And it will bring that treasured sense of liberty. See “Planning Ahead for Tough Choices” (page 22). And finally, when we think of liberty and happiness, most of us think of “home.” Explore with us the concept of home in “Home Is...” (page 24). John Sevo and Jeff Kraus Managing Directors Spectrum Retirement Communities, LLC

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LIFESTYLE

THE TIES THAT BIND Bridge the generation gap. Call your loved ones.

DISTINGUISHED RESIDENT Gustav Lundberg’s life spans continents.

16 18

KEEP MEMORIES ALIVE Have you started your memoirs?

GREATEST GENERATION Lew Davis spent a lifetime defending us by sea.

ADVISOR

YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE How to navigate being the new kid on the Spectrum block.

GUSTAV LUNDBERG

PLANNING AHEAD FOR TOUGH CHOICES Communication is the key to making your wishes known.

WELLNESS

STAYING SHARP How do you keep your brain healthy? You might be surprised.

LAST LAUGH Who Knew? The older we are, the happier.

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HOME IS... What says “home” to you?

INSIDE SPECTRUM LOOKING AHEAD Peakview Assisted Living & Memory Care in Centennial, Colo.

WELLNESS

Staying

SHARP RESEARCHERS DISAGREE ON THE BEST WAYS TO KEEP OUR BRAINS IN TOP SHAPE AS WE AGE. WHILE BRAIN CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN POPULAR FOR YEARS, THE LATEST STUDIES ARE LEANING TOWARD PICKING UP A YOGA CLASS RATHER THAN A PENCIL. By Dawn Carr

BRAIN FITNESS IS ALL THE RAGE these days, but the experts don’t agree on the best way to keep your noggin hoppin’. Sudoku? Crossword puzzles? Knitting? There are many types of brain fitness methods and activities – all with the goal of helping you think more clearly and build your memory skills. Can these activities help delay dementia and disease? Some research says yes, but opinions differ on the BEST methods. Most agree, though, that you need to “use it or lose it” (your brain, that is). Professionals recommend that we engage in at least five minutes of brain exercise each day.

This Research is “Nunsense”

The whole conversation about staying mentally fit took hold when David Snowdon’s research linked lifestyle behaviors with cognition. Snowdon’s study involved examining daily activities of 678 American Roman Catholic nuns, and whether they developed Alzheimer’s disease. Snowdon discovered that the nuns who regularly performed complex tasks like crossword puzzles were much less likely to show signs of cognitive decline compared to those whose brains were less active. Subsequent research has explored this concept

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WELLNESS

further. Results of a new study by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society were impressive. This study followed 3,000 older adults over a 10-year period. The positive effects of one 12-hour training program lasted 10 years after completing the program. Participants in these games also sustained better reasoning and processing speed. But not all studies agree. In fact, many have shown that older people benefit from cognitive training programs for only a brief period as they practice and get better at that particular game or activity, and that the learning process does not translate into broader benefits. In other words, the benefits aren’t long-lasting and don’t help with everyday life. However, the latest research is beginning to provide substantial evidence that increased physical exercise goes a long way with keeping the mind in good shape. In fact, walking regularly produces a significant increase in brain mass in older people. The good news is, you don’t have to choose. Most of us have time for stimulating cognitive skill-building activities and physical activity, which can be found in Spectrum communities which are designed with both in mind. For more ideas on keeping the mind and body active, go to www.icaa.cc/activeagingweek

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MARVELOUS MISSOURI MINDS Crestview Senior Living in Crestwood, Mo. has introduced a series of brain challenges to keep its residents sharp. ”We offer a wide variety of material to our residents to keep the program interesting and fresh,” says Director of Fun Tracy Hickman. The group at Crestview participates in trivia, “Jeopardy” questions, spelling bees, word definitions, “Name That Tune,” reminiscing, and also questions that require the players to work toward the answer.

Pump Up Your Brain with Physical Activity Spectrum communities are adding new initiatives to help our residents stay physically active which, as research shows, helps keep the brain and the body in top shape. he wellness center in T each of our Spectrum communities will soon be adding TechnoGym hydraulic machines. With these machines, communities will have SpectraCircuit Fitness programs. These programs are designed to target specific areas of wellness, endurance, strength and balance. The equipment can be modified for different abilities and preferences.

Hickman is aware that, when doing these activities, sometimes people don’t like to be singled out. “So we put our Marvelous Minds (MM) residents in small groups to encourage teamwork. That way, everyone gets a chance to contribute.” Sometimes the group participates in group Sudoku, pattern-recognition, Cranium Crunches, etc. in the community’s bistro area. “A good way to keep MM in front of the residents who might not participate is to make placemats with trivia and place them under the glass tops in the dining room,” Hickman says. “It makes for lively conversation and social interaction.”

pectrum introduces Silver S Sneakers, the nation’s leading fully-funded Medicare program offered to keep older adults active. The FLEX program is for individuals who typically don’t visit a gym or need more variety in their workouts. The program offers classes and activities such as Zumba, tai chi, yoga and walking. The classes are taught by certified instructors and enable us to offer a larger selection of fitness classes to our residents as well as invite members from the outside community.

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WELLNESS

The Last

LAUGH

WONDERING WHY YOU’RE FEELING SO SUNNY? RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE OLDER WE GET, THE HAPPIER WE ARE. By Barbara Hall

WE ALL LAUGHED AT THE CLASSIC MOVIE “GRUMPY OLD MEN” BUT REALLY, THE STEREOTYPE OF CURMUDGEONLY SENIORS IS JUST THAT: A STEREOTYPE. IN FACT, RESEARCH SHOWS THAT OUR OLDEST CITIZENS ARE THE HAPPIEST. A RECENT GALLUP POLL INDICATES THAT PEOPLE GET HAPPIER AS THEY GET OLDER. AND ANOTHER STUDY, THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, OFFERS SIMILAR RESULTS.

Who Says Kids Have all the Fun?

The Gallup study asked people, over a two-year period, whether they felt "a lot of" each of the following emotions the day before the survey: + Smiling/laughing

+ Happiness

+ Learning/doing something interesting

+ Worry

+ Being treated with respect

+ Anger

+ Enjoyment

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+ Sadness + Stress

The results suggest that happiness begins to deteriorate at about age 18 and keeps declining until about age 50. Around that time, the curve begins to go up and keeps climbing until age 85, when people are happier than they were at 18. These numbers hold true no matter the person’s race, gender, education, marital status, employment, or geography. A University of Chicago study followed a group of people from 1972 to 2004, with similar findings. About 28,000 people aged 18 to 88 took part. Fluctuations in happiness, coinciding with good and bad economic times, occurred during the 30-year study,

FRED GONZALES, AN INDEPENDENT LIVING RESIDENT, TREATS HIS FRIENDS IN MEMORY CARE TO A HAPPY HOUR EVERY TUESDAY.

but older people were the happiest throughout. A certain amount of distress in old age is inevitable, including aches, pains and loss of loved ones and friends, say the study’s authors. But older people generally have learned to be more content with what they have than younger adults. In general, the odds of being happy increased 5% with every 10 years of age. Overall, about 33% of Americans reported being very happy at age 88, versus about 24% of those age 18 to their early 20s. And throughout the study years, most Americans reported being very happy or pretty happy; less than 20% said they were not too happy.

The Active Connection

A separate University of Chicago study found that about 75% of people aged 57 to 85 engage in at least one social activity every week. Those include socializing with neighbors, attending religious services, volunteering, or going to group meetings. Those in their 80s were twice as likely as those in their 50s to do at least one of these activities. The link between those numbers, and the happiness factor, is probably no accident. Spectrum understands at the core of our organization, that active people are happy people. That’s why we have a Director of Fun at each of our communities. Our Directors of Fun may take their jobs more seriously than any other department heads in the organization, planning a variety of stimulating and interesting activities to help keep residents active—and happy.

Fred’s Happy Hour Fred Gonzales, an independent living resident at Lincoln Meadows Senior Living in Parker, Colo., noticed that during Friday Happy Hour, the Memory Care residents seemed to be enjoying the music and fun. He has taken it upon himself to start Fred’s Happy Hour each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in the Memory Care community. “He gets them all around the table and they sing and enjoy the time,” says Lisa Jensen, Director of Fun at Lincoln Meadows. “He says to them each week, ‘Do you want me to come back next week and play some music for you?’ and they always say ‘Yes, yes’. So he does.” Jensen sees what a difference it’s made in Fred’s life as well as for the Memory Care residents. “It’s amazing how our residents enjoy starting a project and following through with it,” Jensen says. “Fred’s Happy Hour was started, created and followed through by the resident, for the residents and it’s made a huge difference in everyone’s life!”

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LIFES T YLE

THE TIES

THAT BIND

SPECTRUM COMMUNITIES HELP CREATE IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS By Dawn Carr

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WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE generation gap for, well, at least a generation. New research shows that that gap is still, unfortunately, alive and healthy. Paul Taylor, author of The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown, describes some important ways in which the cultural, political, and economical differences between generations has created tensions. Two main areas of conflict, he says, are in resources available for educating young people and for the health and security for our older citizens. While this kind of generational conflict is not a new topic, one of the author’s key findings is quite encouraging. Despite the divide between generations, Taylor’s research has found that strong bonds within families helps reduce the effects of these generational differences. Spectrum communities are working to

facilitate these important family relationships in a number of ways.

Take Him Out to the Ballgame

Scott Thornbro’s father, Charlie, is a resident of the Pine Ridge Villas of Shelby in Shelby, Mich. The Villas staff helped father and son maintain a connection that has been meaningful to both of them. “I grew up a Detroit Tigers baseball fan because of my dad,” Thornbro says. “He would take me to games with tickets he would get through executives at work and we would go down to Tiger Stadium and watch Lou Whitaker, Chet Lemon, Alan Trammel, and Lance Parrish play.” This tradition faltered as Scott grew older, his dad retired and his dad’s health began to fail. But Villas of Shelby stepped in to provide one more chance to foster that connection. The Villas staff had arranged a group outing to a Tigers game, and convinced Charlie to go. At the last minute, when there was an extra ticket, they invited Scott to go along. “That day, going to a ballgame with my dad again, is one of the highlights of my life,” Thornbro says. “I bought him a hot dog, stayed until the end, and sang ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’ I don’t remember if the Tigers won. Don’t really care. But I got to go to one more game with my dad.”

Connecting Generations Through Writing

SCOTT THORNBRO AND HIS DAD, CHARLIE, ENJOYING AN OUTING TO A DETROIT TIGERS GAME.

While interacting regularly with family members is important, mingling the generations doesn’t have to be among family members to provide benefits. Michelle Major, Director of Fun at Mountain Park Senior Living in Phoenix, Ariz., developed a program to connect high school students with residents of her community. She worked with two English teachers at a local high school and brought in a group of 23 students, matched them with residents of the community, and invited the residents to share their life stories with the students. The experience was designed to help the students develop stronger people skills

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LIFES T YLE

and improve their writing. Before they started the project, the teachers said their students were anxious about the experience, concerned about meeting strangers who were old enough to be their grandparents or great-grandparents. But the concerns soon dissipated. The high school students were surprised and inspired by what they learned. The lives of the residents were rich with details about living through the Great Depression, camping and hiking around the country, spending time in foreign countries, and achieving important personal goals. The result of the interviews is a book, Oh the Lives They Have Lived, which was released in May to the residents at Mountain Park. But the project didn’t stop there. Major says it’s

just the beginning of an important process. The students involved have asked about ways to keep seeing the senior they interviewed, and some are becoming more involved as volunteers in the Mountain Park community. The older residents who were interviewed are expressing how, through the process of the interviews, they were able to better understand what is happening in the lives of younger people, and are relating better to their grandchildren. Major hopes to expand this program into the lives of the family members, facilitating the sharing and writing of the life stories of the residents by their children and grandchildren. She believes this will provide a historical document that will be valuable to the families.

“I don’t remember if the Tigers won. Don’t really care. But I got to go to one more game with my dad.”

Physical and Occupational Therapy provided on site at three Spectrum communities

Raising the Standard

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Albuquerque, NM Aurora, CO Colorado Springs, CO Glendale, AZ Grangeville, ID Las Vegas, NV Meridian, ID Mesa, AZ Murray, UT Orem, UT Overland Park, KS Scottsdale, AZ South Ogden, UT

Transitional Care

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Fostering Family Connections Spectrum offers a number of ways to encourage family members to visit their loved ones in the communities. Sunday brunch is perhaps the most popular of these activities. Each community offers a fabulous Sunday brunch on special occasions, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, and Thanksgiving. Each community also provides a private dining room that can be reserved free of charge for family events.

uarterly events, such Q as an art show, health fair and holiday bazaar, encourage families to come together within the communities. In addition, many communities plan special events on a regular basis including:

FAMILY BINGO - where family

FAMILY PIZZA PARTIES - who

and friends are encouraged to come and play.

doesn’t love pizza?

PAINT PARTIES - featuring local artists to conduct classes.

Wii BOWLING - grandchildren LOVE to come and bowl with their grandparents!

When you or a loved one is a member of a Spectrum community, family members are not only welcome, but encouraged to be a part of the lifestyle. Together we can help bridge the generation gap.

SPECTRUM RETIREMENT’S

ANNUAL

FOOD & FUN

CONFERENCE

2014

Every year our Dining and Activity Departments host a conference which allows our Directors to come together to stay current in their field, while sharping their skills and socializing with each other. This year, they hosted a “Guac’ Off” to see who could make and showcase the best guacamole. SpectrumRetirement.com SPECT RUM / FA L L 2 0 1 4

D I S T I N G U I S H E D

R E S I D E N T

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, AND HARD WORK

HIS JOURNEY TOOK HIM ACROSS WARTIME EUROPE, TO SOUTH AMERICA, STATEN ISLAND AND FINALLY, HOME IN COLORADO By Barbara Hall

GUSTAV LUNDBERG may be one of the most traveled residents of Lakeview Senior Living, but much of his journeying was not by choice. He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the cultural and artistic center of Russia, in 1928. Stalin’s tyranny permeated the culture at that time. “Everybody was afraid of a door knock at night.” That door knock did come and Lundberg’s LAKEVIEW RESIDENT father, an electrical engineer, was arrested and taken to a gulag in Siberia. In his letters, he wasn’t allowed to detail his experiences, but Lundberg’s mother knew what the gulag conditions were by following the writings of Solzhenitsyn. When his father’s monthly letters stopped coming, his mother inquired and found out he had died in the gulag four months earlier. Lundberg’s mother, an accountant, remained 14

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in Leningrad, but sent her son every summer to stay with his uncle in an area south of Ukraine called Donbas to attend summer school. “She believed the sun and the clear air was good for my health, plus my education was very important to her,” he says.

On the March

In June of 1941, while Lundberg was staying with his uncle, Hitler invaded Russia. Four | GUSTAV LUNDBERG months later his uncle’s village was occupied while Leningrad was totally surrounded by the Nazis. “Being with my uncle saved my life,” Lundberg says, “but I was worried about my mother.” Sometime during that next brutal winter, Lundberg’s uncle was told to abandon his village and given just a few hours to pack and leave. The family, including Lundberg’s aunt and uncle, grandfather and a cousin, took two horses and

a wagon, and traveled slowly through Ukraine and Poland and finally to Austria. One night in Austria, after nearly four years as refugees, a farmer let them sleep in a barn; the war was coming to an end and American and German armies were both near, with bullets flying overhead all night. “The next morning American soldiers entered the farm with chewing gum and chocolate for us,” Lundberg says. “I’ll never forget it. FDR also died that day.” The little family traveled to Salzburg where, as displaced persons, they were allowed to sleep in German army barracks. “We thought it was such a luxury to have a roof over our heads,” he says. The family had food and also school, a thrill for Lundberg. “We had excellent professors from Prague.” He earned a college certificate from that time in the barracks, when he was also working as a Jeep mechanic in a garage.

Immigrants Again

“Life in Austria was difficult,” he says. “My uncle decided to immigrate to Argentina, and we all went with him.” The family arrived in Argentina in 1950. Lundberg began working in construction and as an electrician. He was going to technical school at night to learn Spanish and English and a trade. “My uncle was good to me,” Lundberg says. “He said ‘you are intelligent and a hard worker; you should go to university. I had always wanted to be a doctor so I decided to try.” The first hurdle was obtaining the backup credentials for

GUSTAV LUNDBERG, A RESIDENT OF LAKEVIEW SENIOR LIVING, EARNED HIS MEDICAL DEGREE IN ARGENTINA, AND THEN OPENED A PRIVATE PEDIATRIC PRACTICE IN STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. HIS DAUGHTER, PICTURED WITH HIM AT LOWER LEFT, LIVES IN GOLDEN, COLO., AND RECENTLY CONVINCED DR. LUNDBERG TO MOVE WEST.

the college certificate he had earned in Austria. “There was a lot of red tape and it was very expensive,” he says. The American consul helped him get what he needed, and he entered medical school. He was also working full time to pay for living expenses. “My co-workers were helpful and encouraging during this time, they wanted me to succeed and become a doctor.” There was no time for fun in those days. “I came home from work, ate supper and went straight to bed. I slept until 3 or 4 a.m., and then got up to study.” In five years, he had a medical degree. During all this time, he hadn’t known what happened to his mother. Nearly a million people in Russia had died from hunger during the war; but it was dangerous for her, he felt, during Stalin’s regime, to try to correspond with her. “After Stalin died I started to search. I found her in 1964 through the Red Cross, and brought her to Argentina.” In 1966, Lundberg married a Polish immigrant who he had originally met in Austria, and the couple traveled, with his mother, to the U.S. where he had a private pediatrics practice on Staten Island until his retirement in 2006. His daughter, who lives in Golden, Colo., convinced him to move to Lakeview last year. “It’s a good life here. I’m very grateful to my daughter for bringing me here.”

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LIFES T YLE

KEEP MEMORIES ALIVE Publishing your memoirs, or those of a loved one, is easy and fun! IF YOU’RE LUCKY, over the years you have heard many stories of personal and family history told by people who have lived their lives in another time. Today our families may be scattered across the country or world, so we don’t have the experience of living the stories together. So how can we best capture and preserve these precious tales? The Internet has made it possible for many of us to explore genealogy and learn more about the generations who came before us. The more we gather names, dates, and cold facts, the more we yearn for more personal connections to understand those who came before, details found in stories about their lives and first-person accounts of their daily struggles, hopes, and dreams. It is these accounts that provide the rich detail we are looking for.

Capturing the Stories

There are many ways to record stories, whether it’s our own tales or those of a loved one: notebooks, books, tape recorders, video cameras. You can hire a professional or do it yourself.

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Before conducting the interview, spend some time researching. What questions do you want to ask? Open-ended questions invite longer answers. Allow silence. Your question may require some reflection and organization of thoughts. Don’t interrupt or re-phrase the question. Let the answers flow naturally. Ask follow up questions. Don’t follow a script – be flexible. If an answer elicits another question, ask it! If you had that thought, likely others will too. It’s a family history. Invite other family members to participate. While you might ask a series of questions that are of particular interest to you, your brother or your granddaughter may have different questions to ask.

Dennis Stack, founder of Project StoryKeeper, offers these tips for interviewing: + Keep the process simple. The best stories come out when people are comfortable.

+ Know your equipment. Regardless of the type of device you use, know how it works. + Not everyone wants to be on camera. Many storytellers feel uncomfortable in front of a camera. In that case, a notebook and pen may be the best way to capture, or have a tape recorder in the background where it is not intimidating. + Really good stories cannot be told to a wall. Storytellers need to see, hear, and feel the reaction to their stories. + When recording stories, keep it one-on-one. Too many people in the room can cramp the storyteller’s style and can make recording difficult because of “cross-talk” and “overtalk,” which end up as garble on the recording. + Keep interview segments to 30 to 45 minutes. It’s much better to have several short sessions than a couple marathons. The time between the interviews (one or two days at most) is important to the process, allowing the storyteller to reminisce more deeply. + Don’t ask the deep-meaning questions too soon. If you let the stories develop and unfold, the storyteller’s ability to explain nuanced values and wisdom will come naturally. + Keep the stories short. It’s easier to manage smaller audio files, so be ready to stop and start the recorder to mark each segment.

Finishing Your Project

After recording the stories, it’s up to you how you want to edit and preserve them. Many people turn their projects into books (see sidebar, right). Or you can simply keep them as they are, in videotape or audio recording. Most people, however, find that to really enjoy reading and listening or watching the stories later, it requires some editing. Those processes can be done professionally, or you can do it yourself. The most important step is to capture the stories before they are gone.

Spectrum Author Publishes Own Memoirs With two hardcover books already published, John Diller is working on two more. Spectrum resident John Diller has published two memoirs. In these self-published, hard-cover books, Diller’s words convey his love of a life well-lived while recording his personal history in a keepsake that his family will treasure for generations. From his heart-wrenching recitation of leaving the family home with his ailing wife, to the scandals he uncovered in auditing car dealerships in the 1970s, you come to know Diller in his own words and voice. resident of Pine Ridge of Plumbrook A Senior Living in Sterling Heights, Mich., Diller published his books through Lulu, one of the largest and most popular selfpublishing companies in the world. He wrote the books, and then his daughter took over the publishing process with Lulu. iller is a retired accountant and auditor so D writing is a new talent that he explored, but he says it wasn’t difficult. “I always wanted to write books,” Diller says. It took about a year to write each of his books. He is working on a third book, “Jokes for the John,” and would also like to work with other Pine Ridge residents to write a book about some of their lives and experiences. You can read more about Diller on his personal website, www.johndiller.com.

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{ GREATEST GENERATION }

Always a Higher Calling

For Lew Davis, it was always about logistics and support for the United States Navy. He took a few detours along the way, but he got there in the end. By Helen Masterson

Lew Davis

LINCOLN MEADOWS SENIOR LIVING | PARKER, COLO.

BORN IN 1918 in Pennsylvania, Lew graduated from high school in 1936. There was no opportunity to go to college, and although he wanted to go to the naval academy, that was impossible without contacts. He took a job in a machine shop and earned enough money to move to Alaska where he had an uncle. Here his sea adventures began. Lew got a job on a canary tender (tugboat) as a deck hand setting traps to catch salmon. The work was seasonal but he was earning $180 per month, pretty good money in 1937. It was not enough, however, to pay for college tuition. He went back 18

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home to Pennsylvania where he applied to the Pennsylvania State Nautical School. In 1938, Lew became an engineering cadet on the ship. He lived, worked and studied aboard the ship for two years, graduating in 1940.

Call to Action

In 1940, with Europe at war, Lew was called to active duty on a ship sailing in a merchant convoy in the North Atlantic delivering supplies between Iceland and the U.K. Always evading attacks by German U-Boats, the merchant convoy made 14 round trips. “We were sitting ducks,” says

Lew. The convoy was attacked five times and in November 1942, 16 of 46 ships were sunk. Harbor tugs went alongside the sinking ships to help rescue the crews. “We were blessed.

We were not sunk.” Before long, Lew was transferred to an attack transport in the Pacific that was helping train troops to invade Japan. Fortunately the war ended and instead of invading Japan, his ship brought troops back home.

Continued Service

With an offer to stay in the Navy as a Lt. Commander, Lew became an engineer on a cruiser and then he became an executive officer on a destroyer. His career continued commanding destroyers and finally with the Pentagon in Washington D.C. He returned to the Pacific to command a destroyer tender. He became Chief of Staff out of Japan for all ships providing support to the 7th Fleet in the Pacific. “It was all logistics and support,” says Lew, “moving food, hospital and other supplies, everything that could be needed on any ship.” After another tour at the Pentagon in the anti-submarine warfare division, Lew went to

LEWIS DAVIS WAS THIRD ASSISTANT ENGINEER ON THE M.S. PENNSYLVANIA SUN IN 1940, ABOVE LEFT. ABOVE, HE WAS SQUADRON COMMANDER ON THE U.S.S. JAMES E. KYES. AT LEFT, THE TANKER PENNSYLVANIA SUN WAS TORPEDOED ON JULY 15, 1942, EN ROUTE TO BELFAST, IRELAND.

“We were sitting ducks.” San Francisco to decommission a Navy oiler and help to install a civilian crew on board. “We had to make many modifications for a civilian crew. On a Navy ship, we had about 370 personnel. A merchant ship only had a crew of about 160. Today, all U.S. Navy support ships are crewed by civillian mariners.” Lew was awarded the Legion of Merit Award and retired after 30 years in the Navy. Only 56 years old, he joined a private company hired to decommission Navy logistic-support ships and convert them to civilian-crewed ships. Now 96, as he reflects on his

career, he remembers when he was five years old sitting on his great grandmother’s lap. She was 99 years old and told him the story of another soldier, her younger brother, who had been in the Civil War. She was sitting on the porch one day when a “hobo” appeared at their front gate. Turns out it wasn’t a hobo but her brother. He had been in a prison camp in Richmond, Va. He had been captured by the Confederate Cavalry while driving a wagon train, and had been kept in the prison for three years. “When I tell my great-grandchildren this story, they can’t imagine me knowing my great grandmother, who was born in 1826 — and I’m telling this story to them in 2014!”

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Your Next

ADVENTURE SPECTRUM COMMUNITIES WORK HARD TO MAKE YOU FEEL RIGHT AT HOME, RIGHT AWAY By Barbara Hall

WERE YOU EVER THE NEW KID IN school? It can be exciting, a time to carve a niche for yourself and make new friends. But moving can be daunting and overwhelming, no matter what stage of life you’re in.

Getting Ready

Most likely, when making a move to a Spectrum community, you’re downsizing from a larger home, and it may be your first experience in apartment living. Many residents who move to Spectrum communities come from single-family homes, an adjustment that can be stressful, and offers some unique challenges. To make your transition as

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smooth as possible, Spectrum move-in coordinators recommend working with a downsizing coordinator, a service offered to all new residents. “The downsizing coordinator will offer a free consultation and work with you to understand what is most important to bring to your new apartment,” says Mike Giglio, sales director at Lincoln Meadows Senior Living in Parker, Colo. After visiting you in your current home, the coordinator will then go with you to take measurements in your new Spectrum apartment to help decide how your things will fit perfectly into your new space. “The coordinator will even pack up your possessions, arrange the mover, then unpack the boxes,

hang pictures, and set up the apartment. You don’t have to lift a finger!” Giglio says. Dale Russell, community relations director and a former Spectrum move-in coordinator at Mountain Park Senior Living in Phoenix, Ariz., says the organization and pre-planning of the move is extremely crucial to long-term happiness. “All of us know that a lot of our things that we hold on to, we really don’t use. It’s a matter of working with the coordinator to get help with giving things to your family, to Goodwill, or planning a garage sale,” Russell says. One of Russell’s particularly memorable moves was working with a new resident who is in a wheelchair. “We used blue painter’s tape to mark off on the floor of the new apartment where all the furniture would go,” Russell said. “Then she came in with her wheelchair and wheeled around the blue tape to see if she was going to have enough space to move around.”

an activities and interests form to help guide them to activities they enjoy. “While there are certainly scheduled activities, there are many groups that are formed by the residents themselves based on any special interests that they may have.”

Feeling Like Home

How long will it take before it feels like home? “We usually let our prospective residents know that it takes four to six weeks,” Giglio says. “Within a couple months, the resident often wonders what life was like prior to living here. Very often we hear them say, ‘Why didn’t I do this a long time ago?’ ” “The sooner a new resident can honestly say, ‘this feels like home,’ the happier we are,” Jensen says. “We want them to say, ‘you had me at hello.’”

Fitting In

Once the move is complete, the fun can begin. Quite literally. Each Spectrum property has a Director of Fun. Lisa Jensen fills that role at Lincoln Meadows Senior Living. “We have a welcome wagon that takes our new residents coffee and rolls and shows them things like how the microwave works and where the laundry is,” Jensen says. New resident orientation, and a session with the head of each department in the community, are also important. The orientation allows the resident to meet the leadership team, meet fellow neighbors and answer questions that they may have in a warm and friendly environment. “We also try to pair new residents with people of similar interests like golf, knitting or cooking,” Jensen says. Giglio encourages new residents to get involved in activities immediately. “Activities are a great way to meet new neighbors and establish camaraderie.” Before moving in, each resident fills out

I wish I would have known about Hospice sooner.

Any patient, family member or friend can contact us anytime, 24/7. 314.453.0990 heartlandhospice.com

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ADVISOR

Planning Ahead for

TOUGH CHOICES

MAKING HEALTH CARE DECISIONS FOR LATER IN LIFE IS NEVER FUN. BUT IT’S IMPORTANT TO DISCUSS YOUR WISHES WITH FAMILY AND PHYSICIANS. THIS ARTICLE WILL PROVIDE IDEAS ON HOW TO START. By Lydia Manning

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YOU’VE HEARD THE PHRASE “quality of life,” especially as it relates to health care issues late in life. There may come a time when you are unable to make decisions about immediate health care needs. When that happens, who makes those decisions for you, and how do they reach their conclusions? It’s important to have conversations with family, friends and physicians about how (and if) you would like to receive medical care if you aren’t able to make those decisions for yourself. These types of orders are called advanced directives. Advanced directives are legal documents that articulate the medical care a person wants should they become incapacitated or unable to speak for themselves. Advanced directives go into effect only when a person is in such a state.

There are several types of advanced directives: + Living will + Durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC) + Do not resuscitate (DNR) order + Organ and tissue donation forms A living will is a document that clearly describes for your health care providers the types of procedures that you would want, or not want, to be done and under what conditions. This document typically covers wishes pertaining to life-sustaining treatment. A durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC) allows you to name a person to make medical decisions for you if you can’t make them for yourself. It’s important to designate someone you trust to uphold your wishes and manage your care as clearly outlined in your documents. It’s also a good idea to have orders or plans written for organ and tissue donation, dialysis, blood transfusions, and the treatment of your body after death. Bring your family on board as soon as you have made your decisions, and then begin to involve

your health care providers. Your physicians can give the best information for the use of life-sustaining measures and other types of treatments. Once the plans are made, the documents need to be completed and formalized. You can use a lawyer to help legitimize these documents, but it is not required.

Legal Matters

Consult your state laws to ensure proper planning and protection of your advanced directives, as the process for legal documentation varies by state. Some states are using forms such as the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) or MOLST (Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment). These forms reflect recent changes in laws associated with advanced care planning. Once your advanced care planning is finalized, it is important that your family knows how to access your documents and necessary forms. Many people will keep copies in their wallets or have the documents on file in their medical charts as well as with their other important documents. Making these decisions ahead of time ultimately helps everyone. With proper planning and good communication, the quality of your life is assured.

For More Information You can access information in your state and receive copies of advanced care planning forms through your local Area Agency on Aging (AAA). To find an agency near you, call the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116 or go to www.Eldercare.gov. For more information, contact: Put It In Writing, American Hospital Association at 1-800-424-4301 (toll-free) or www.putitinwriting.org

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ADVISOR

Home is...

WHERE YOU HANG YOUR HAT

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU HEAR THE WORD “HOME”? MOVING TO ANY KIND OF NEW community, and leaving what may have been your home for many years, will take some adjustment. Paring down possessions is an important step, and Spectrum communities are prepared to help with this process from the early stages. While one adjustment may be to the “things” in your personal space that are brought along or left behind, another is adjusting to a new idea of home. In a more traditional environment, home is considered the private space within the walls of a house. Daily activities occur primarily inside the house, and when those activities are shared with

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others, it means entering someone’s private space. In a Spectrum community, the way people spend time in their environment is designed to shift. Rather than spending the day alone or engaged in individually-centered activities, our communities facilitate engagement with other people in meaningful and fun activities. Our architects and designers have reconceived the concept of home in a way that sets residents up to share many daily experiences with others. In fact, 40% of each community is designed as communal space. For example, residents share meals in a dining space that is simultaneously expansive and

intimate. This allows you to eat in the company of many different people, but with a setup that encourages small group interaction during mealtime. Other common areas are designed to provide a comfortable space for engaging in a wide range of activities you may have done at home, by yourself, or that would have required a car trip. Even though moving to a Spectrum community means transitioning from an entirely private space to one that mixes private and community ammenities, it does not mean that your previous concept of home is lost. Spectrum’s team of designers and developers maintain a clear vision of what makes each individual feel at home. According to Mike Longfellow, Spectrum Senior Vice President of Construction and Development and an architect, “one challenge that we have is that, in everything we do, the principle of home is our focus. Their

new home is not just their individual apartment, it’s the libraries, bistros, dining spaces, and even the outdoor spaces that are available to them. It all needs to feel like home.” Being a part of a larger community and sharing life experiences with others, these are critical to maintaining a good lifestyle, Longfellow says. “We never lose sight of the fact that our residents should feel like they are a part of this larger community, and that their new home is within that entire space.” Moving to a Spectrum community requires thoughtful consideration about the personal items that make your new space feel as comfortable as possible. It also means making a transition in the way we think about home. With the professionals dedicated to making your transition as easy as possible, we’re confident you’ll soon feel right at home.

“Our residents should feel like they are a part of this larger community.”

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INSIDE SPEC TRUM

Looking AHEAD PEAKVIEW ASSISTED LIVING & MEMORY CARE IN CENTENNIAL, COLO. By Tanisha Kiernan

COLORADO, WE ARE BACK! Spectrum Retirement Communities, LLC, is building yet another welcoming and cozy place to call home. Peakview Assisted Living & Memory Care will make its debut in Centennial at the beginning of 2015. Spectrum successfully operates 23 properties all over the U.S., with an additional eight communities currently under construction. Peakview will be introduced as Spectrumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fifth retirement community in Colorado, also known as The Centennial State. Money Magazine has cited Centennial as one

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of the best cities in the U.S., and Bestplaces.net has Centennial ranked in the top 10 categories for Healthiest Cities and Best Cities for Relocation. On top of that, Centennial was ranked by the group at #5 for Best U.S. Cities for senior citizens in 2011. Sharing a zip code with the southern Aurora area, Centennial is home to seven award-winning municipal golf courses and known for its upscale neighborhood living. Peakview will feature assisted living, transitional memory care and memory care living options. It

is important that our residents and their families understand Peakview will not be just another “retirement home” but a community with customdesigned living for those who may need aroundthe-clock care. The 85-unit community will be equipped with a full-service beauty salon, theater and private dining room as well as a state-of-the-art wellness center. With nearly 40% of the space dedicated to common areas, Peakview will also feature a library, business center, and sky lounge. Residents are in excellent hands with our professionally trained nursing staff. We realize each resident will have his or her own needs in order to maintain healthy living standards. Directors of Wellness will meet individually with families and

residents to identify their daily needs, ensuring residents only pay for the services they need. At Peakview, residents will have the opportunity to capture the breathtaking Rocky Mountains view as well as stunning sunset masterpieces. All of us look for the same thing when it comes to placing those who are close to our hearts in the hands of others. Spectrum communities offer the attention, love, and heartfelt care they would give to their own families. For more information or to reserve your future home today, call: 303-547-3575. Visit our website for more detailed information and pricing: www.peakviewassistedliving.com

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