I find it hard to believe I have been privileged to write this column for the past ten years. And what a wild ride it has been.
For those who may just happen to take a moment to read, please indulge me as I look back at the past ten years and where I have taken this column.
In 2014, after my 18-year career with WSPY Nelson Multimedia as a broadcast journalist, news writer, reporter, and interview host on Fox Valley Today and WSPY News, I took the opportunity to try something completely different, and I jumped from broadcast to social services, landing a job with Senior Services Associates, Inc. of Kendall, Kane, and McHenry Counties (SSA). But writing gets under your skin and a yearning for the learning and reporting the latest news is hard to avoid.
Within a year, I was approached to host Fox Valley In Focus on public access television, and I jumped at the chance for this part-time gig. My full-time employer was not upset to hear me confess to moonlighting, instead, she enthusiastically asked me to contact The Voice to ask about writing the monthly senior voice column. This started a wonderful friendship with Carter Crane and his family, for which I am so very grateful.
My sojourn in social services with SSA and later with the Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois (VAC) gave me some amazing opportunities to help older adults. In my personal life, I had spent several years as a caregiver for my aging parents, maneuvering through the many aspects of senior care, researching medical alert devices, mobility aids, assisted living options, memory care and skilled nursing, living trusts and wills, and experiencing grief. Starting a new career working with seniors was the most frightening experience of my life. I didn’t know if I could handle working as someone who cared for older adults in need. Little did I know that my personal experiences prepared me well to help young retirees and our most elderly seniors with issues they faced in their day-to-day life.
I was blessed to be trained as an instructor for several evidence-based classes, including the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, A Matter of Balance, and my personal favorite, Bingocize! In these class settings, I was able to encourage others to stay physically active, mentally alert, and spiritually motivated to make the most of every single day, to stay upright and vertical, and to be able to handle the challenges of falling, with the goal of getting up again. It was my great joy to share my time with others in this way.
Through the past 10 years, as we all maneuvered through the COVID-19 pandemic, I mastered the uncertainty of remote work while attempting to remain relevant. I responded to the need for extra help in offices where staff were quarantined at home, handling the frustration of coming down sick myself, and finding drastic job description changes as I responded to the various needs of my agency.
Through the years, I have also had the opportunity to meet, interview and spotlight valuable organizations and causes whose stories resonate with older adults. My joy is introducing readers to some of the amazing individuals who reside among us in the Fox Valley and sharing their stories. Octogenarians who have become published authors, retirees who give their time to important community causes, individuals who challenge themselves to greater health and happiness in their later years by giving of themselves to help others.
I have interviewed volunteer drivers, foster pet parents, therapy dog owners, elected officials, non-profit professionals, and many more. The opportunity to tell their stories invigorates me. I feel so fortunate for this opportunity. I hope you have enjoyed these past ten years of columns and stories. I know I sure have, and I can’t wait to see what stories come to life next.
Barb Nadeau is a freelance writer, who has served in a variety of capacities throughout her career in public relations, as a television producer and as an on-air host, on television and radio, as a print journalist and managing editor, and in the non-profit sector networking among several social service agencies and service providers throughout Illinois. She is also serving a third term as an elected alderman in the City of Plano Illinois. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com