Story by Van Mitchel, Staff Writer

Oklahoma senior citizens, caregivers, and those interested in matters affecting aging Oklahomans are invited to the State Capitol for Senior Day Monday, March 11.
Attendees will have the opportunity to share ideas, needs and concerns with their state lawmakers, visit with organizations and state agencies to learn about services for older Oklahomans, and learn about current legislation that may affect older Oklahomans, said Rebekah Williams
Ombudsman Systems Advocate/Liaison.
“The Senior Day at the state capitol is primarily meant for aging Oklahoma’s caregivers, and those that have a stake in our aging population, to make sure they can age well and stay in Oklahoma,” Williams said. “We’re hoping to have at least 500 attendees this year, and they get to go into the House chambers and sit in member seats. It should be an amazing day for our elders in Oklahoma.”
The Oklahoma Alliance on Aging organizes the annual Senior Day event with the Oklahoma Aging Partnership; the Oklahoma Silver Haired Legislature Alumni Association; AARP; and the OKDHS Community Living, Aging and Protective Services Division.
The Oklahoma Alliance on Aging is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying the needs of aging Oklahomans, educating on issues, and advocating for solutions. It provides information and advocacy on issues including nursing homes, community care, housing, transportation, predatory lending, safety, legal rights, and quality of life.
Williams said attendees can arrive starting at 8:30 a.m. and sign in at the second-floor rotunda. Volunteers and signs will guide the way.
The event will run from 8:30 a.m.- 1p.m. at the State Capitol, 2300 N Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City. The event is free to attend.
State agencies and nonprofit organizations will be there to provide attendees information on their programs and services for older Oklahomans.
The Senior Day session in the House chamber, fourth floor, begins at 10 a.m. with guest speakers including Lt. Gov. Matt Pinell, and House Speaker Charles McCall.
“The program starts at 10 a.m. in the House chambers, and that will be until noon,” Williams said. “The Lieutenant Governor will be greeting us, and the House Speaker is going to welcome us to the House. The Senior Day at the Capitol is to empower those individuals that are aging or caregivers, those that have stake in anything, to express their concerns and what they need, and what they want to see changed.”
Williams said attendees will have the opportunity to meet with their local legislators.
“We will get them hooked up with their perspective legislator, whether it’s senator or a representative, to be able to speak to them either that day or set up appointments to come back,” she said.
Williams said legislators look forward to meeting their senior constituents.
“A lot of the legislators are very glad when these elderly people that are so faithful to show up at polls, come during election year, but at the same manner then they need to validate their vote by making sure there’s a social infrastructure within to age well,” Williams said. “Senior Day at the Capitol is a time to empower and inform and educate the seniors.”
The Oklahoma Ombudsman Program serves residents in Oklahoma’s long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living, and similar adult care homes
For the last 7 years, Williams has been an Ombudsman based out of the Southern Oklahoma Developing Association in Durant. She was appointed to the role of Ombudsman Systems Advocate and Liaison where she works as a face and voice with lawmakers and agencies to represent the residents of long-term care facilities across Oklahoma.
“In my role as a system advocate ombudsman, I am detailed to the state capitol during session to consult with lawmakers on bills that are best for people aging, or we kill the bills that aren’t best for people aging,” Williams said. “We work with different agencies, legislators, whatever we need to do to make sure that our elders are given value, and the rules and laws that are being passed, with everything within us, are in their best interest.”
All individuals and groups planning to attend are encouraged to register on the Oklahoma Alliance on Aging website: https://okallianceonaging.org/events/.
Nonprofit organizations requesting an exhibit table, and those interested in sponsoring, may use the registration link to apply.
For more information call (405) 943-1895 or email info@okallianceonaging.org.

The Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma has made a $1 million donation to Mercy Health Foundation in support of the new Love Family Women’s Center under construction on the campus of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City.
“We know the new Love Family Women’s Center will be a great asset to the state,” said Neil Stitt, board president of the Masonic Charity Foundation. “Many rural Oklahomans are without access to family planning and much-needed prenatal care. The new women’s center will be a great place for moms and families to come and receive the best care.”
When construction is complete in fall 2023, Mercy will have a total of 73 patient rooms to serve women in the new center, increasing the capacity for deliveries by 40%.
Mercy coworkers and donors recently celebrated a construction milestone on campus as crews installed the first horizontal steel beam at the site. That beam was the beginning of an elevator that will allow families of newborns needing a higher level of care direct access from the women’s center to the existing fifth-floor neonatal intensive care unit in the hospital.
“We are so grateful for the Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma for their incredibly generous gift which will allow us to provide innovative new services and introduce a new gold standard of care for women and families across the state of Oklahoma,” said Lori Cummins, vice president of development at Mercy Health Foundation in Oklahoma.
The existing Mercy BirthPlace is original to the hospital, which was built in the 1970s and designed to handle around 3,000 births per year. More than 4,000 babies were delivered in the space last year.
The Love Family Women’s Center will be a 175,000-square-foot, four-story building featuring an obstetrics emergency department staffed by obstetricians, the state’s first hospital-based low intervention birthing unit staffed by certified midwives, C-section suites, birthing units, postpartum rooms, a dedicated area for women recovering from surgeries and outpatient therapy services.

by Vickie Jenkins, Staff Writer

What is StacyCares Oklahoma? StacyCares Oklahoma is a healthcare consulting company offering healthcare advocacy, appointment accompaniment, and visitation services. They provide support and information to clients, caregivers and families to help them navigate care and make informed healthcare decisions.
StacyCares Oklahoma was started by Stacy Hansen, a Board-Certified Patient Advocate with more than ten years of advocacy experience, an MBA in healthcare administration, a Master’s degree in professional writing and communication, and a Bachelor’s degree in biology.
What is a Board Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA)? An advocate is someone who supports or helps the cause of another. The BCPA designation acknowledges Board Certified Patient Advocate professionals who have demonstrated their experience and proficiency in the field of patient advocacy by passing a formal examination. The BCPA credential is built on ethical standards, professional competencies and best practices for professionals who work in patient advocacy and have taken the steps necessary to become certified.
“The most important quality in my business is respecting patient autonomy,” Stacy said. “What I want to emphasize is to let our clients know that they have a voice in their healthcare, and I can help them use it. They also don’t have to be alone. They don’t have to go to their doctor’s appointments, procedures or be in the hospital alone. If they are in a facility, we can visit and check on them. I want seniors in facilities to have the best quality of life they can,” she added.
“The business’s set of personalized services and operating as a private advocate makes StacyCares Oklahoma unusual and unique in Oklahoma. This is what sets us apart from hospital advocates. I work for my clients, representing them and their needs and their interests. As part of our ethic, we honor our clients’ personal values, their right to be involved in their healthcare, and to engage in two-way communication with their providers. We are seeking to empower people to feel in control of their healthcare, to have the best quality of life, and to take some stress out of their healthcare experience she commented.
Stacy explained that some clients struggle with managing their healthcare, or the healthcare of a loved one. “Some clients get stressed by appointments or have trouble talking to or understanding their healthcare providers, or they just want someone to help coordinate their care,” Stacy said. “Effective communication is vital in healthcare. This is why we join clients at medical appointments and procedures—to be supportive, to assist discussions with healthcare providers, and to help them understand diagnoses, treatment plans and instructions. If the client doesn’t have family or friends available to go with them, we go to be by their side. Sometimes, patients aren’t up to advocating for themselves when they are not feeling well. StacyCares Oklahoma can help the client by asking questions to their doctor relaying their concerns, and helping them understand treatment recommendations and plans. We can make those follow up calls for them to ask questions. We can also help coordinate their care to help them understand what each provider is doing. This helps them feel more at east and in control of their healthcare.”
“There are some families that live far away from their loved ones in Oklahoma. We offer personalized social and well-being visits to residents in long-term care facilities to help alleviate loneliness and put distant families at ease. We offer another set of eyes, devoted to checking on their loved ones well-being. Our social and wellness visits are tailored to our client’s needs and include assisting communication with friends and family. We want to help maximize the quality of life,” Stacy said.
Sometimes, potential clients ask the question, why do I need a private advocate? The healthcare system can be challenging and overwhelming, and sometimes scary and confusing. It can help to have an experienced advocate focused on their needs, providing additional information about what their healthcare provider or insurance company says, and helping them and communicate questions and decisions.

If you have any questions, feel free to call 1-405-802-3730 or email info@StacyCaresOK.com or check out www.StacyCaresOK.com or follow them on Facebook.

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By Nick Thomas

Chances are, every time velvet-voiced Johnny Mathis takes center stage during his current US tour, the atmosphere could turn Misty.
Sure, some devoted Mathis fans might swoon teary-eyed with waves of emotional nostalgia witnessing the 86-year-old singing icon in person, but many will just dutifully sway to the familiar soothing melodies as the veteran performer delivers his signature ballads such as “Wonderful! Wonderful!,” “Chances Are,” and, of course, his 1959 hit – “Misty.”
Interrupted briefly by the pandemic last year, Mathis continues his 2022 Voice of Romance Tour with stops around the country (see www.johnnymathis.com). Although the viral menace is still lurking, it has not deterred the soulful singer from performing this year.
“Well, it’s what I do,” said Mathis from his home in Los Angeles during a tour break. “Except for earlier in the pandemic, I’ve been touring since I recorded my first album in 1956.”
Currently in his 66th year as a recording artist, the Mathis career statistics are impressive, including 79 original albums, 43 singles on the Billboard Pop Chart, 5 Grammy nominations as well as a 2003 Lifetime Achievement Grammy and songs used in over 60 films and television shows.
Then there’s his historic 1958 Greatest Hits album, released just two years after his debut album, which became the first Greatest Hits album issued by any pop artist.
“Mitch Miller was responsible for that,” said Mathis, referring to the conductor and record producer best remembered for the 60s musical show “Sing Along with Mitch” on NBC. Mathis signed with Columbia Records in 1956 and to cash in on the growing Mathis phenomenon, Miller wanted to release a new album in the late 50s but the singer was in Europe. Mathis had scored big with recent hits, so Miller bundled several together on one record and “Johnny’s Greatest Hits” would spend almost 10 continuous years on the Billboard Top Albums Chart.
Ironically, Mathis’s signature song, “Misty,” didn’t appear on the 1958 compilation since it would be featured the following year on his “Heavenly” album. Written by Errol Garner (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics), Mathis first heard the tune at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco where he grew up.
“I used to go there as a teenager to watch the singers and the owner would let me sit in the back where no one could see me,” recalled Mathis who would eventually be discovered singing at the club. “Garner would perform several times a year and play this wonderful tune (Misty) on the piano with no lyrics. His piano introduction was about a minute and a half with all sorts of chord changes and, oh man, I loved hearing it.”
Later, Mathis learned Burke had added lyrics to the melody. “Columbia usually chose all the songs for me to record but as soon as I got a chance to select something, I recorded Misty.”
While Mathis acknowledges the influence of many professional and personal buddies throughout his career, one always stands apart.
“I began singing because my dad sang,” says Mathis. “He was my best pal and my true blessing is that he lived long enough to see my success as a singer.”
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, in Alabama, and has written features, columns, and interviews for numerous magazines and newspapers. See www.getnickt.org.

https://www.navigatingmedicare.com/

By Nick Thomas

It’s been 14 years since 85-year-old screen legend Tony Curtis died at his Nevada home on Sept. 29, 2010. The much-loved actor left behind a body of work that included over 150 television and movie roles in such classics as “The Defiant Ones,” “Some Like it Hot,” and “The Sweet Smell of Success.” Curtis remarried for the last time in 1998 and his new bride, Jill Vandenberg, was some 40 years his junior. The pair became inseparable, traveling the world together. But back in Nevada, the couple founded Shiloh, a horse rescue ranch.
“I was horrified to learn that tens of thousands of unwanted American horses are slaughtered each year for human consumption in Asia and Europe,” Jill told me in 2006 when I met her and Tony on their ranch. “I realized I could do more to help horses.”
“We were driving in the car one evening and Jilly told me she wanted to save some of those horses,” Tony recalled to me. “I told her let’s go do it!”
They did, and the couple soon acquired 40 acres of desert outside Las Vegas, eventually transforming the barren area into a nurturing ranch where hundreds of horses were saved. I still recall Curtis’s joy when I asked him to comment on the success of the Shiloh sanctuary: “It picks up my spirits to see the good work done there,” was his reply.
Today, Jill Curtis is now Jill Curtis-Weber after marrying Todd Weber three years after Tony died. The couple met at a country and western club in Vegas and were married six months later. After selling the Nevada ranch and her Las Vegas home, they moved to Deadwood, South Dakota, often romanticized as the heart of the American West with history steeped in gold rushes, outlaws, and frontier legends such as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
“We both loved the history of the Old West and began traveling around selling our horseshoe art,” said Jill, when I met up with her recently at her shop in the heart of downtown Deadwood. “When we came here we loved it and decided to stay.”
Along with her husband and mother, Sally, the trio run “The Lucky Horse Co.,” a thriving Western-themed business specializing in decorative horseshoes and other gifts (see www.shilohhorserescue.com). Their charming little shop, an open-air wooden structure built around a living tree, is located on the main street of Deadwood. It’s filled with hundreds of Western art pieces, showcased by unique horseshoe art – beautifully painted or decorated horseshoes for wall hangings and intricate pieces welded into artistic shapes.
“We make everything here in Deadwood by hand,” said Jill. “Todd does all the welding for the horseshoes and also teaches gold panning to tourists! He built the shop around the tree and based it on an old livery stable from the late 1800’s. The profits go towards supporting Shiloh.”
With her deep passion for horses, it was a natural progression for Jill to expand into Western art. She relocated Shiloh Ranch from Nevada to Newell, about 30 minutes from Deadwood, where the ranch has rescued and rehabilitated over 700 horses since its founding. She remains grateful to her previous husband for supporting her horse rescue efforts and recognizes some similarities between Tony and Todd.
“Todd has the same sense of humor and wit, and is very intelligent and kind,” she said. “I think Tony would have liked him. Todd is very supportive of my past life and has never felt he had to live up to Tony, who had a larger-than-life personality. We were ready to start a new life, a simpler life, in this beautiful historic Old West town. Tony and I watched and really enjoyed HBO’s ‘Deadwood’ series, so I believe he would absolutely love that I now live in the town.”

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for many newspapers and magazines. See
https://www.getnickt.org.

by Greg Schwem

Sorry, New Zealand Parliament. While I support mask mandates, my allegiance is also to Barry Manilow.
Last week, while attempting to disperse anti-mask protesters who gathered outside the government’s headquarters in Wellington, New Zealand, Parliament officials resorted to a rather, um, unique tactic: blasting the songs of Barry Manilow, the guy who writes the songs.
Had I been part of the protest, I would have politely tapped a Parliament member on the shoulder and said, “Please turn up the volume. And don’t just limit it to the hits. Dig deeper into the Manilow catalogue. Get my blood flowing with a little ‘Riders to the Stars’ and then tug at my heartstrings with ‘Lonely Together.’”
Admit it, we all have that one artist we’re secretly embarrassed to admit we admire. For me, it’s Barry. Yes, I am on a first name basis with him. Deal with it, haters! You have your Kanye; I have my Barry.
I’ve been a Barry fan since winning tickets, via a radio station giveaway, to a Manilow — sorry, a Barry — concert at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre in January 1977. Snippets from that tour can be found on “Barry Manilow Live,” the album cover featuring Barry in a royal blue, sequin-studded outfit that he probably was lowered into via hydraulics.
Not only did Barry deliver the hits but he also entertained his fans by singing his “VSM” (Very Strange Medley), a series of well-known commercial jingles that Barry either wrote or sang before the big bucks came his way with “Mandy” and “It’s a Miracle.” Seriously, how many artists can have an entire audience singing, “Get a bucket of chicken, finger lickin’ good, have a barrel of fun, goodbye ho-hum”?
Who knows? Parliament may have waved the white surrender flag and allowed the entire country to discard their masks had protesters begun crooning those lyrics.
If your goal is to annoy an audience, you can’t play the music of somebody who, at 78, is still packing them in, either on the road or at his Las Vegas residency, despite a raspy voice and far too much plastic surgery. Similar stars approaching octogenarian status don’t receive that kind of treatment. I’m sure it never entered Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mind to remove Ottawa truckers from blocking the Canada-U.S. border by blasting Elton John. Or the Rolling Stones.
So, why single out Barry? His songs too are ingrained in our mental jukeboxes, even if we’re afraid to say it. Several years ago, I saw one of those pedal bar tours — basically a keg party on wheels — making its way through downtown Chicago. Its passengers, all half of Barry’s age and in various stages of inebriation, were singing, “Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl…” in whatever key was comfortable.
Nobody asked them to disperse.
In Parliament’s defense, officials did choose other tunes besides Barry’s. “Macarena,” the Los Del Rio song that spawned a dance craze in 1996, got numerous spins and, yes, that would have had the desired effect on me. I probably would have offered to not only wear a mask but distribute masks if it meant never having to hear it again.
Barry songs are played often but not ad nauseum, making them unlikely “nails on a chalkboard” candidates. Next time Parliament, consider the following:
“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen.
“Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke.
“All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey.
Anything by the Spice Girls.
Just leave Barry alone to do his thing while he still can. His concerts are bucket list candidates for fans of a certain age, and even younger audience members who get dragged to see him usually end up singing along at some point. I have hopes that my daughters, ages 19 and 25, might accompany me to a Barry concert someday.
OK, that would be a miracle. A true-blue spectacle miracle.
(Greg Schwem is a corporate stand-up comedian and author of two books: “Text Me If You’re Breathing: Observations, Frustrations and Life Lessons From a Low-Tech Dad” and the recently released “The Road To Success Goes Through the Salad Bar: A Pile of BS From a Corporate Comedian,” available at Amazon.com. Visit Greg on the web at www.gregschwem.com.
You’ve enjoyed reading, and laughing at, Greg Schwem’s monthly humor columns in Senior Living News. But did you know Greg is also a nationally touring stand-up comedian? And he loves to make audiences laugh about the joys, and frustrations, of growing older. Watch the clip and, if you’d like Greg to perform at your senior center or senior event, contact him through his website at www.gregschwem.com)