A SUPPLEMENT TO THE CATHOLIC STAR HERALD JULY 19, 2013

HEALTHY LIVING/RETIREMENT & ESTATE PLANNING

By Marylynn G. HewittCatholic News Service

DETROIT — Although planning for afinancially sound retirement can be anoverwhelming process, it doesn’t have tobe if people start making decisions aboutit before they retire and seek professionalhelp to steer them in the right direction.

Jim Lampertius, an attorney inFarmington Hills, knows it usuallytakes a trigger point to prompt mostpeople into getting their financial andlegal documents prepared for their sen-ior years. “There is an element of pro-crastination, and for a few years I waslike the shoemaker without shoes,” saidthe managing attorney at Lampertiusand Associates.

“Our international travel was aspurring point for us,” said Lampertius,who adopted four Guatemalan childrenwith his wife.

“Guardianship for minor children is agood example of a trigger point,” hesaid. “When we adopted our first child,

we really knew we had to expandbeyond a simple will and medical andfinancial powers of attorney.”

As an attorney who also holds a grad-uate certificate from Wayne StateUniversity’s Institute of Gerontology,he has seen the court system shatterfamilies who did not plan ahead. Thatexperience and his growing family“was our main impetus to do a livingtrust as a married couple.”

Living trusts are growing in popular-ity, he said, “and the true value of a trustis to protect beneficiaries.” That couldinclude such instances as a child with adisability or a spouse who is ill.

“Anticipating that help, and provid-ing guidance on that help, ensures thebest respect of the dignity for the per-son,” said Lampertius, a lifelongCatholic. “It also provides the mosteffective way to get the best proper careand administration.”

While many consider the financialretirement portion of their estate plan-ning early on in their career, they often

overlook medical directives, whichvary by state.

Lampertius said it is important for aperson at any stage of life to make suretheir “financial and legal health is inorder to properly respond to life as itevolves.” In the past 20 years, he said,retirement planning has emphasizedretirement accounts that enable moneyto be inherited or managed at deathwithout accelerating all the taxes.

Not all retirees are able to afford atrained professional to help them gettheir finances in order and may alsohave difficulty with organizing expens-es which is where Catholic Charitiesagencies often come in.

Several Catholic Charities agenciesprovide programs to help seniors under-stand and manage their personalfinances and often also provide bill-paying and budgeting assistance.

Catholic Charities Hawaii offers aMoney Management Assistance to theElderly Program that fills the growingneed of many elderly who cannot man-age their own finances because of theirincreasing frailty, forgetfulness andconfusion. The service allows elders tocontinue to live independently in theirown homes and communities andavoid premature moves into nursinghomes.

For those who are not in financialstraits and not quite ready to retire, theAARP recommends another key way tostretch earnings for the later years:Keep working.

More than 60 percent of workers saythey expect to retire at age 65 or later,according to a survey by the EmployeeBenefit Research Institute, up from 45percent in 1991.

The 2008 book “Working Longer:The Solution to the Retirement IncomeChallenge” advises prolonging retire-ment for at even two to four years topreserve one’s retirement savings anddelay taking Social Security.

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Don’t go it alone:Advice on financial planning for senior years

JULY 19, 2013 CATHOLIC STAR HERALD — S3HEALTHY LIVING/RETIREMENT & ESTATE PLANNING

By Sara AngleCatholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Exercise canimprove the ability to do everyday tasksand manage diseases such as diabetes,heart disease and osteoporosis, and pro-vide increased balance, strength andmood, according to the NationalInstitute on Aging’s Go4Life outreachcampaign, which promotes physicalactivity among older Americans.

A 2010 study from the AmericanGeriatrics Society also found thatexercise is especially effective in pre-venting cognitive disorders in women,aged 65 or over. “Women who remainsedentary have nearly twice thechance of cognitive impairment as dowomen who are active,” said leadstudy author Laura Middleton of theSunnybrook Health Sciences Center inCanada.

The American Geriatrics Society alsopoints out that exercise can lower oneísrisk for falling, which can lead toinjury.

The National Institute on Aging at theNational Institutes of Health recom-mends that seniors choose activitiesthat involve four types of exercise:endurance, strength, balance and flexi-bility. Combining types of exercise notonly improves different areas of thebody, but it also reduces boredom andprevents overuse of certain muscles.

Exercise such as swimming, walkingand yoga are low-impact but engage thewhole body, which makes them idealfor beginner exercisers or those in theirgolden years.

Whatever a seniors’ fitness level is,there are countless options for improv-ing their quality of life through exerciseand socialization.

“We have a common saying that ifyou donít use it you lose it,” saidJustine Merlin, director of therapeuticservices at Immaculate Mary Home inPhiladelphia.

Residents of Immaculate Mary Homeare encouraged to participate to theextent they can. Residents are offereddaily exercise to begin their morning,such as outdoor strolls, and specialevents that include physical activities,such as gardening for Earth Day, areworked into the schedule.

Another option for exercise is joininga local gym, YMCA or health club,which gives seniors an opportunity tomeet and socialize with others likethem who are trying to stay healthy andactive. Many fitness centers have groupexercise sessions that can make exercis-ing seem more like fun than work, alle-viating a common roadblock to exer-cise.

Some facilities even offer speciallydesigned classes for older generations.Zumba, a Latin and hip-hop inspired

dance class and one of the latest fitnesscrazes being offered at many gyms,also has a Zumba Gold program, tai-lored for older individuals who want towork at a slower pace with people theirown age.

St. Andrew’s Catholic Church inRoanoke, Va., hosts its own senior fit-ness class, taught by 83 year-old parish-ioner Gene Jones. Jones, who holdsseveral regional, national and worldtitles in bench pressing didnít beginexercising until he was 68 years old, butis now certified as a senior fitnessadviser.

He works with parishioners in wheelchairs and walkers, using exercisebands to provide resistance to theirmotions. Although he described hisexercises as “nothing major,” he saidthey are important to health andlongevity.

Jones, who suffered from colon can-cer, only took off two weeks of exerciseduring a year of chemotherapy treat-ments and believes his fitness regimenhelped him to overcome the obstacle.

“I’ve got a long time to live yet,” saidJones, who does all the exercises withhis students.

He said he likes working with sen-iors, because people can relate to hisage and see that he is trying to take careof himself.

He advises the group to try every-thing at their own pace, even sittingdown if necessary.

“No matter what your age is you canstill do it; you can do something! Youcan do it, and it’s not going to hurtyou,” he tells them.

Exercise essential for good health as people age

By Ann Dow

At this time of year, the ears ofrecent graduates are still ringing withadvice given by their parents, well-meaning relatives and friends, and ofcourse graduation speakers, all ofwhom have told them to pursue theirgoals and to follow their dreams wher-ever they may lead. All of these wisesuggestions are made with the best ofintentions, but they often fail toinclude an important element thatoften is overlooked: no matter howwell we prepare for the future, thingschange, and we have to be ready toalter our plans accordingly.

A wise Greek, Heraclitus, once saidthat “change is the only constant inlife.” His adage became so widelyquoted that it was misattributed toother sages, including Ralph WaldoEmerson.

Most of us are averse to change; wegrow complacent and comfortable withthings the way they are even whenthey are not ideal. After we have madeplans, we are reluctant to alter thembecause that involves too much effort,and we have already spent too much ofthat in coming to a decision in the firstplace. We convince ourselves that whatis as good as what could be because itis less trouble to maintain the status

quo than to start over. Also, we feel abit more secure in a familiar situationthan in one that may pose hidden dan-gers. Sometimes we deny ourselvesexciting possibilities because werefuse to venture into unknown territo-ry, fearing all that may lurk there.Many of us are placed in situations

where we are forced to make changes,and despite our initial trepidation, wesurvive and find ourselves in a betterplace.

Like most young people, I had aplan laid out for my life, and it fol-lowed a pretty straight line. I took allacademic courses in high school, hop-ing to get a scholarship to allow me toattend college, a luxury beyond themeans of my family. My plans took asudden turn when in my junior year Ibecame seriously ill and spent the restof that year and part of the next recov-

ering. I missed graduating with myclass, and although I was offered sev-eral scholarships, I was not able toaccept and the straight line of my lifeveered off in directions I could nothave anticipated.

Having rheumatic fever as a teen-ager certainly brought about change in

my life, but I had no control over thisevent and thus had only the options ofwallowing in self-pity or making thebest of a bad situation. When the firstchoice resulted in no improvementwhatsoever, I decided to do what hadto be done and see how things workedout. My time in a children’s hospitalgave me an opportunity to see boysand girls younger than I who had farmore reason to complain and yet facedeach day as if it were special and heldhope and the promise of a bettertomorrow.

During my long lifetime, I have hadmany occasions when I had to choosebetween taking a wild leap into a newventure or staying put and wonderingwhat I might have missed. Severaltimes circumstances prevented mywandering away from the safe path,

but when possible, I have chosen the“road less traveled,” and indeed it hasmade all the difference. Thanks toserendipity and an understanding fami-ly, I have gotten an undergraduatedegree, a fellowship leading to a mas-ter’s degree, an NEH grant, a chanceto study at Oxford University, and sev-eral summers at other colleges abroadto widen my horizons. I attribute all ofthis to good luck and a willingness totake on a challenge and to acceptchange.

Probably the biggest change in mylife is taking place right now when Ishould be sitting back and taking lifeeasy. At the prompting of my sons andtheir families, my husband and I haveleft the safety and comfort of our WestDeptford, N.J., home of over 50 yearsto move to Alabama in order to beclose to our youngest son and his fam-ily. We are still settling into a newhome in a new community where weare older than most residents andspeak with “funny accents.” We knowno one well enough to invite them fortea, but everyone we meet is friendlyand helpful. We see examples of thatfamous Southern hospitality everytime we enter a store or visit an office.

We are nearly finished getting ourhouse in order and hope to get aroundto joining some organizations as soonas we are able. Then, we can seek realchange as we enter a new era of ourlives and follow that “road less trav-eled.”

Ann Dow, formerly of West Deptford,now lives in Madison, Ala.

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NEW YORK (CNS) — MaryHiggins Clark, whose 42 books havesold 100 million copies in the UnitedStates alone, has pledged $2 million toFordham University to create the MaryHiggins Clark chair in creative writing.

With her gift Jesuit-run Fordham willhire a professor of creative writingwithin the English department. The uni-versity’s announced the chair will befilled by a visiting appointment for alimited term, offered to a distinguishedwriter drawn from a variety of genres,to lead writing workshops and teachseminars and master classes to upper-level undergraduates or graduate stu-dents.

The first holder of the chair will beannounced in the spring of 2015.

Higgins Clark, a Fordham alumnawho was a university trustee from 1990to 1996, delivered the university’s com-mencement address in 1997, and washonored with a Founder’s Award in2004. In the late 1990s, she helped fundthe construction of the William D.Walsh Family Library.

“I always knew I wanted to makeanother gift to Fordham,” she said. “Atmy age, at 85-and-a-half, if I don’tdecide to do it soon, who knows?”

Widowed in 1964, she was raisingfive children on her own when sheenrolled at Fordham in 1974, and afterfive years of night school, she earned aphilosophy degree. She wrote twobooks while at Fordham, “A Stranger IsWatching” and “The Cradle Will Fall,”both of which became best-sellers. Hermost recent book, “The Lost Years,”features the university prominently.

CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz

Novelist Mary Higgins Clark, with herhusband, John Conheeney, smiles asshe arrives for a St. Patrick’s DayMass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral inNew York on March 17, 2011.

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Bishop McCarthy Residence and Vitality Rehab in Vineland hosted the Mummers on June 21. The visit was one of thesenior residence’s events celebrating “Older Americans,” which ran from June 15-21. Enjoying themselves and dancing tothe beat were, clockwise from above, resident Danielle Breen and Mummer Bob Lightfoot; Magdalene Coleman and ClaireKelly; staff member Priscilla Montero, and Angela Campisi; and Eleanor Piriano with Mummer Mike Sarlo.

A string band celebrationof older Americans

Photos by Alan M. Dumoffccdphotolibrary.smugmug.com

By Peter G.Sánchez

In his North CapeMay home, you canfind them every-where. In his wood-shop. In his livingroom. In his garage.

Baby Jesus hasbeen carved out of awoodblock. So hasMary, and Joseph.And cows, sheepfrom the nativityscene.

For the past 40years, Yves Jaffrehas carved out a liv-ing, if you will,sculpting pieces thattake weeks, if notmonths, to finish,and selling them atcraft fairs and otherevents. Recently, hewas at theChristmas in JulyFarmers Market atSt. John NeumannParish in NorthCape May.

Surely, the 90-yearold is passionateabout his work. “Ilove this,” he said.

North Cape May isa long way fromFrance, where Jaffrewas born. At a youngage, he was captivat-ed by the Frenchwoodcarvers on the streets, and headmired their dedication and persist-ence to a patient art.

After marrying his wife, Georgette,the two and their 2 year old sonmoved to the United States in 1951,

first settling in New York City, laterCliffside Park, N.J., and, now, NorthCape May.

In New York, heworked as a butcherin the restaurantindustry, a job fromwhich he has beenretired almost 30years.

Forty years ago, hetook up woodcarving,after taking threeyears of lessons inCanada, near Quebec.

When it was easierto travel, he wouldhitch a trailer full ofhis pieces to his car,and drive to eventsin New Jersey,Pennsylvania, NewYork or Delaware tosell his art.

Today, desiring tospend more timewith his wife, chil-dren, grandchildren,and great-grandchil-dren, he only sellshis work at localevents. And no morewood sculptures; hehas stuck strictly toflat relief pieces.

Jaffre would loveto pass on his talentsto the younger gen-eration, maybe hisgrandchildren orgreat-grandchildren,but he knows thattoday’s culture isn’tone of patience, butof get-it-done-now.

“You don’t learn how to do this workin 48 hours,” he said. “You have to keepat it.”

S10 — CATHOLIC STAR HERALD JULY 19, 2013HEALTHY LIVING/RETIREMENT & ESTATE PLANNING

A 90-year-old master of a time-consuming craft

Photo by Alan M. Dumoff, ccdphotolibrary.smugmug.com

Yves Jaffre sells his woodcarvings at the Christmas in July Farmers Market at St. John Neumann Parish in North Cape May.

By Liz O’ConnorCatholic News Service

LEVITTOWN, Penn. — Consideringhow rapidly the world has changed inthe past 100 years, the senior membersof families and parish communitieshave a wealth of memories which, ifshared and preserved, can provide a fas-cinating and lasting legacy.

The American Folklife Center of theLibrary of Congress describes “folklife” as the “everyday and intimate cre-ativity that all of us share and pass on tothe next generation” from songs,dances, games and communication ofbeliefs.

Diaries, photo albums, letters, homemovies, business records, and artifactsall form part of the legacy elders canpass on, but audio and video recordings

of elders’ memories of their own lives— and of the lives of their parents andgrandparents — are relatively simpleand immediate way to gather andorganize a legacy for future genera-tions.

Families, organizations, and parishesare among those now collecting suchoral histories.

The Library of Congress Web site —www.loc.gov/folklife/familyfolklife/index/html — offers tips for setting up aformal oral history project, from deter-mining the scope of the project, consid-ering who will organize it, what equip-ment will be needed, to deciding on theultimate destination of the project’sresults. It emphasizes the importance ofobtaining releases from those inter-viewed, and also provides examples.

It also offers tips for interviewees,advising them to do the following:

— Ask open-ended questions.— Use follow-up questions— Allow the interview subject to go

off in another direction if a questionreminds him or her of another topic.

— Limit the interview to about onehour.

Recordings need to be stored in a waythey can easily be retrieved; for exam-ple, digitally recorded interviewsshould be moved for longer-term stor-age to a hard drive.

For about two decades, parishionersat Christ the King Parish in OklahomaCity, Okla., have been taking an activerole in obtaining senior stories.

Pam Cullen, director of senior adultministry for the parish, said the LifeStory Project began with a parish staff

member’s project for his master’sdegree in adult education. The projectwas so successful that now the parishpublishes a book each year with photo-graphs and biographies of its olderparishioners.

The parish connects its senior parish-ioners willing to take part in the projectwith pairs of seventh graders from theparish school. The 12-year-olds inter-view the seniors and write biographieswith the help of their English teachers;the seniors provide old and contempo-rary photos.

Stories include games the seniorsplayed when they were 12 as well ashow they met and courted their spouses,what kinds of work they did as childrenand adults, and information about howtheir families came to live in the UnitedStates and in Oklahoma.

Seniors’ stories: Passing on a lasting legacy

By Mark PattisonCatholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Don’t look now, but DoloresHart is about to become a star again, 50 years after herlast movie.

Hart — that’s Mother Dolores, the prioress of aBenedictine women’s monastery in Bethlehem, Conn.— has just had her memoir pub-lished a year after a documentaryfeaturing her life in as a clois-tered nun picked up an Oscarnomination for best documentaryshort subject.

She is crisscrossing the countrythis summer to promote the book,“The Ear of the Heart: AnActress’ Journey FromHollywood to Holy Vows.”

The latest rush of celebrity is “amazing,” MotherDolores told Catholic News Service June 6 inWashington, where she was scheduled for a raft ofinterviews and a personal appearance.

“It makes me realize that time is the illusion. We dothings in our life, and we constantly do them. It’s onlyseparated by time,” said the 74-year-old nun.

Mother Dolores, in her Hollywood days, made only10 movies, but she made them count. She was casttwice opposite Elvis Presley, in 1957’s “Loving You”and 1958’s “King Creole.” She starred in the firstfilm celebrating the annual ritual of spring break in1960’s “Where the Boys Are.” She even did a starturn as St. Clare in the 1961 religious biopic “Francisof Assisi.”

But she’s most proud of playing the title character inthe 1962 drama “Lisa,” as a Jewish girl who survivedthe Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp only to be pursuedby traitors after World War II intending to force herinto prostitution.

“(Actor) Stephen Boyd was the man who rescuedLisa and told her he would take her back to Palestine.And of course she had a very hard time hearing himand to believe in him and actually get there. And thatrelationship with Lisa was for me a relationship withthe Jewish women who had undergone that experi-ence,” Mother Dolores said.

After hearing firsthand the death camp experiencefrom one Auschwitz survivor, “I wanted to do that pic-ture. I wanted somehow to be identified with the bestpossible rescue of these people,” she added. “And Iloved working with Stephen. I fell in love withStephen in the middle of it. I was hoping he’d ask meto marry him.”

“Maybe someday,” Mother Dolores mused, “we’llwork it out. We’ll meet and say, ‘What a good thingwe did.’”

Born in Chicago, she said her grandfather had amotion picture operator’s license and she’d go into thebooth with him and spend days as a youngster watch-ing movies. She told CNS she had always wanted to bean actress but after her successes on screen, she beganto think life “had a bigger meaning,” that “everyhuman being has a mission,” and maybe makingmovies was not the “end-all and be-all.”

When she knew Elvis, she said, “he wanted to dosomething with his career. He wanted to get rich andinteresting parts. They never gave him that. They justkept putting him in one girlie film after the other.”

Mother Dolores was never nominated for her filmroles, but she was the focus of the Oscar-nominatedHBO documentary “God Is the Bigger Elvis.”

She said Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the late papalnuncio to the United States, summoned her to hisoffice one day and told her, “You are to make a movieabout consecrated life.” Mother Dolores protested,saying all her Hollywood contacts were dead. “And hesaid, ‘No, no, no, no. God will help you do this,because this has to be done,’” she recalled. Four dayslater, representatives of HBO — none of whom hadever heard of Archbishop Sambi — called to ask per-mission to film at her convent, Regina LaudisMonastery, for a documentary.

The film was originally set to be two hours long, butan HBO executive, smelling an Oscar, decided to chopthe documentary in half. “And that’s when my heartbegan to sink and I began to think, ‘Oh, no, it’s goingto be about me,’ because what (else) are they going todo to cut a two-hour film down to one hour?”, she toldCNS.

“God Is the Bigger Elvis” was nominated, althoughit did not win. “I thought to myself, I hope this filmwill be of value. That’s all I hope,” Mother Doloressaid.

One might think “The Ear of the Heart” was writtento capitalize on the documentary’s high profile. Not so.

“Dick DeNeut, who wrote the book with me, askedme 10 years ago if I should do a story of my life,”Mother Dolores said. She added she resisted the ideainitially, but eventually consented.

She said that originally, she wasn’t thrilled with thetitle, either: “I thought it would be a medical journal.But he (DeNeut) said, ‘That’s the first line in the Ruleof St. Benedict: “Listen, my son with the ear of theheart to the voice of the master.”

Mother Dolores is the only nun to be accredited as avoting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Artsand Sciences — colloquially, the folks who choose theOscar winners. And it comes in handy for the occa-sional movie night at the monastery.

Sisters “will put up (notes) on the board saying,‘Can we see this?’ ‘Can we see that?’ ‘Could anybodybring this?’ We’re in the monastery, but they know,”Mother Dolores said, laughing. “We do have our spe-cial movie nights. I think the last was ‘LesMiserables.’ Everybody wanted to see that.”

JULY 19, 2013 CATHOLIC STAR HERALD — S11HEALTHY LIVING/RETIREMENT & ESTATE PLANNING

CNS photo/courtesy of Ignatius Press

Dolores Hart and Elvis Presley star in the 1957 movie “Loving You.” The young starlet left a promising act-ing career at age 25 to join the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., where today sheserves as prioress. Her autobiography, “The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey From Hollywood to HolyVows,” co-written with Richard DeNeut, was released in May.

For Mother Dolores Hart, it’s time for her close-up — again

S12 — CATHOLIC STAR HERALD JULY 19, 2013HEALTHY LIVING/RETIREMENT & ESTATE PLANNING