Living Your Best Life

LIVING YOUR BEST LIFE (AFTER 50)

Living Your Best Life (After 50)

How these three kūpuna are disrupting stereotypes of aging, pursuing their dreams and staying young at heart.

Learn more about Living Your Best Life: aarp.org/health

On a typical day, Lori Auhll gets up before the sun at 5 a.m., drinks a protein shake and heads out for a lively tennis match with friends at Kapi‘olani Park. After two sets, she heads across the park, pops in her earphones and cools off with a vigorous 2-mile swim to reiki music playing from her waterproof iPod. A refreshing nap followed by a healthy late lunch, and this active 84-year-old calls it a perfect day.

It’s more than just leisure sports, it’s training. Auhll is the oldest female competitor in the Waikīkī Roughwater Swim. She started competing in her 60s and has now completed the 2.4mile race 20 times. Auhll is one of many who are enjoying life after 50, taking on new hobbies, finding new passions or fulfilling dreams they never had the time or resources for earlier in life.

People 50 and older are important to Hawai‘i’s future. Whether they’re continuing to work, doing what they’ve always done, finding new careers, contributing thousands of hours of volunteer work or caring for grandchildren and parents, through their experiences, they inspire multiple generations to photos: sean marrs live their best lives.

The Athlete

Auhll moved to Hawai‘i in 1966 for college, studying social work at UH Mānoa. For 20 years, she worked in child protective services and while the job had great benefits, it proved stressful. Working overtime, defusing life-threatening situations, dealing with attorneys and calming down angry parents were all part of a 24/7 job.

“I decided early on that I wanted to retire young so I would be able to do everything I intended to do,” Auhll says. She picked up tennis and paddling immediately after retiring, adding to a long list of outdoor activities that also includes skiing and horseback riding. She speaks fondly of riding in Turkey, New Zealand, Bali, Mexico, Istanbul and here until her favorite local horse passed away.

And, of course, there’s swimming. She grew up in Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where water’s part of the lifestyle. At 5 years old, Auhll startled her mom when she jumped into a lake for the first time and easily started dog paddling. “It just came naturally to me,” says Auhll.

She’s had her share of shark encounters and big daunting waves swimming solo in Hawai‘i, but so far, she says, no bad experiences. “After a while, you start being able to read the water and know what to do,” Auhll says.

Lori Auhll has entered the Waikīkī Roughwater Swim 20 times. She has completed it all but twice.

Her mobility isn’t perfect— she has arthritis—but she goes to Straub for physical therapy and stretches at home every day. She often takes the stairs to her apartment on the 24th floor to strengthen her legs and lungs and credits diet for fueling her active lifestyle. Auhll stays away from salt, bread and butter, and sticks to brown or wild rice. Protein includes eggs, fish and lean meats like chicken breast or ground turkey, and she’s a fan of having a papaya at night.

Her advice: “It’s never too late to start some activity. Don’t just walk around the block—you gotta get your heart going. Keep active and stay young!”

LIVING YOUR BEST LIFE (AFTER 50)

The Adventurer

It had always been Lloyd Uto’s dream to own a recreational vehicle. The idea of packing up, getting into an RV and traveling across the country struck a chord in him at a young age. As a college student, he’d spend weekends visiting RV fairs. But it wasn’t until 2012, after 40 years as a dentist in ‘Āina Haina, that he retired and lived his dream.

“Some people go for boats,” says Uto. “I went for RVs.”

He and his wife, Lorraine, drove across the mainland for four years, exploring 38 states. Uto, 76, gets excited describing his first 40-foot model or the mechanics of a diesel motor home engine. “Lorraine, oh bless her heart. She just went along with me at first, but grew to love it,” Uto says.

It was a big shift, switching from fixing teeth to fixing engines. Uto’s attention to detail and mechanical precision came in handy. “If you’re not a do-it-yourself kind of person, it’s really difficult,” Uto says. “Your little apartment is rocking and rolling. Things get loose, things break and you’ll need to be able to fix it on the road or know where to find help.”

He enjoyed the adventure. He’s seen moose, elk and sheep and once, he remembers vividly, was surprised to find boiled peanuts at a highway stand somewhere between South Carolina and Tennessee. “Somehow, that really stuck in my mind!” he says, laughing. He speaks fondly of New Mexico’s hot air balloon festival and his favorite, Yellowstone National Park. “You can’t put a

Lloyd and Lorraine Uto at Yellowstone National Park, Lloyd’s favorite destination.

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

price on this experience of flying into the Mainland and having your own house on the road with you. It’s amazing.”

Another wonderful discovery was the relationships he and Lorraine built with fellow RVers, many of whom are also retirees with the time and financial resources to travel. “They are all generous, caring and patriotic people and we have a lot in common, including respect for law enforcement and military,” Uto says.

The RV life is physically demanding, so he hasn’t driven around for a while now. Instead, he bought a luxury fifth-wheel camper and parked it in an RV campsite in Alaska. He calls it his second home and goes there every summer for fishing.

“We’re enjoying life at our age now,” says Uto. “We’re living every day to the fullest and we love what we have together.”

The Guardian

‘I olani Palace is a proud historic landmark treasured by many, including former KITV news anchor Paula Akana. She left her 35-year career in journalism to take the helm as executive director at the palace in 2019. Akana was 57. It was a big change. “Journalism had been my entire life. It was my safety zone. But I knew I wanted to do more for the community so when this opportunity came up, I did some really hard thinking and decided it was what I wanted.”

Her earliest memory of ‘Iolani Palace was a visit when she was