Yesterday I had the privilege of walking with some Friends of the Davenport to remember on his death day, Louis Davenport, who left behind the Davenport Hotel. It was a glorious day for the short stroll in Riverside Memorial Park. And it was refreshing to…
According to the MMD newswire, billionaire Alki David has paid for the rights to stream over the Internet "the legally assisted suicide of Nikolai Ivanisovich (62), who is terminally sick with brain cancer from a clinic in Switzerland with the use of lethal injection administered…
When we look at people who are famous, people who have reached success beyond our own imaginations, we think we have an accurate glimpse into their lives. We do not. Today we learn the sad news of Jeret “Speedy” Peterson’s death – from an apparent…
Though Mary Gordon wrote the book Circling My Mother in 2007, I only now just read it. Her mother had a fascinating life -- she was a career woman long before most women, a polio survivor, a mother who treated her daughter like an adult…
…I would say when violence erupted in Seattle, in Lakewood, at the Uffizi in my beloved Florence. At the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, a wallet was inadvertently left on a bench. The finder turned in the wallet which made its way back to…
The Associated Press reported that a South African man spent 21 hours in a morgue, in the mistaken belief he had died. The man started yelling, prompting morgue workers to run away in fear. They eventually returned and removed him from the fridge. He was…
My mom and I went to a wedding yesterday for a couple who married later in the age game. Their parents have all passed away, but they were not forgotten at the wedding Mass. The siblings of the bride and the groom lighted candles in…
Singer Amy Winehouse has died. I do not recall her music, if I ever heard it, it has left my memory. The only voice I do remember is that of media reports of her on-going demise: alcohol, drugs, strung out, passed out, a self-destructing-train-wreck of…
Elwood Powers, 92, died recently and was put to rest today. Steve Witter, who worked with Elwood's wife, Dorothy, long ago at The Spokesman-Review, delivered a beautiful eulogy. What was so moving about Elwood's life was this detail from Witter: "Though he was a man…
When my husband was in surgery Tuesday, my sister and mom showed up in the surgery center waiting room, even though I'd insisted earlier in the day that I would be fine waiting alone. The surgery was not a major one, though Tony was put…
My husband had some minor knee surgery yesterday and I'm home today as caregiver, because he can't really do much except stay in bed and keep ice on his knee. When we got out of the surgery center yesterday at 5ish, we were both tired.…
Austin, Texas was recently named by Kiplinger as the number one "Best City for the Next Decade." As Baby Boomers hit retirement, many of us seek a new place to call home, a place where money will go far. Today's retirees often take classes, pursue…
Remember learning to read: the feel of books and struggling to carry them around as a child? Remember lugging them in the hallways of school or down the road to home? How we read has changed recently as much as what we read as adults.…
Happy 90th birthday, John Glenn! What a journey – then and now. I am old enough to remember Glenn's first flight into space. It was sci-fi-like. Would you, if you were offered the chance, travel into - or out of - the atmosphere?
The Associated Press is tracking aging boomer attitudes toward getting older and today reported that its recent poll indicates boomers worry most about cancer and memory loss. But they should be worried, too, about heart disease and diabetes because, according to the report, boomers are…
When I give journalism talks to students, I explain one of the reasons why we try to always publish the ages of people in our stories. Readers like to compare themselves to other people. So if some 30-something doctor is also a best-selling author, you…
On Sundays in The Spokesman-Review, our classified obituary section runs in the Northwest news section and it generally takes up two pages and more, as most families wait to place their obituaries in our Sunday newspaper, due to its high circulation. Once a month in…
Today, I am …well, Rebecca calls it "shedding" while a physician friend calls it "giving the house a 'crapectomy.' " I will just call it "unloading stuff into the universe." But I always get stuck on the part "where shall I send these things?" And…
Earlier this week our EndNotes column ran a Q/A on Japanese traditions surrounding death and grief. A lovely film explores this topic in the Japanese-produced film “Departures,” a film that won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "An exquisite cinematic masterpiece that…
How's that for a dramatic headline? It's a little bit of an exaggeration but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released today a National Cancer Institute study that says there's a link between "exposure to depictions of smoking in movies and youth smoking initiation."…
Malaria is a huge killer globally. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been aggressive about ways to stop mosquitos from biting people and infecting them. Bed nets has been one great solution. And now, scientists will try to make better traps, using stinky feet…
A 23-year-old woman delivered a baby in an Olympia hospital, put it in a plastic bag and placed it in the trash and then walked back into the emergency room, where she was being treated after coming to the hospital by ambulance for an unrelated…
How old is old?? Rebecca and I initiated our EndNotes column primarily for our generation, the Baby Boomers, to address issues around aging, illness, death/dying and etiquette needed in these situations. A new poll finds three-quarters of all baby boomers still consider themselves middle-aged or…
In my theology classes, I learned the term "pelvic theology." It's used when (allegedly) celibate priests, bishops, cardinals and popes in the Roman Catholic church try to control women's bodies, especially in the reproductive area. Today, this news item from CathNewsUSA website: Toledo Catholic Bishop…
Did Pope Pius XII, sometimes seen as the pope who did very little to save the Jews during World War II, come out of afterlife "retirement" to save one woman from a cancer death sentence? Maria Esposito, whose Stage IV Burkitt's lymphoma disappeared, thinks so.…
Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.
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