By Darlene Franklin

On the eve of Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle, I remember watching Diana Spencer marry Prince Charles when my children were small. A generation later, Americans remain fascinated with royal weddings. Although our country rejected a sovereign king at its birth, we still love pomp and circumstance.
According to the New York Post#, we remain fascinated by royalty because embody national unity in a unique way. (Presidents are rather polarizing figures).
Perhaps that’s why enjoying nature’s majesty leads us to the unifying force of nature’s God.
Consider the experience of Katherine Lee Bates.
In 1893, the young Wellesley professor taught a summer course in Colorado Springs. She joined a faculty trip to the top of Pikes Peak. Inspired by the panoramas, she wrote a heartfelt poem. Visitors today can read her words on a plaque atop the mountain that rises more than two miles into the sky:
O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain! America, America, God shed grace on thee.
Almost a hundred years later, I traveled to Colorado for the first time. I kept looking for the mountains. At the top of one final rise, they filled the horizon. Mountains, mountains, everywhere I looked, from north to south. Tall, rugged, in shades of slate blue and purple—breathtaking.
God’s majesty stampeded through my heart for the first time since I left New England for college, The soaring peaks increased my awareness of God’s other-ness as creator and king. I loved it so much that I stayed in Colorado for two decades.
As a child, I loved summer storms. Lightning flashed and waves crushed against the rocks with destructive force, but they didn’t scare me at all. In the pounding, echoing, hissing squall, I heard echoes of God’s voice and responded to His roll call.
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory in the heavens.
In similar ways, music’s harmonies lift my heart to God. Two hundred seventy-five years have passed since Messiah, George Friedric Handel’s masterpiece, was first performed on Easter Sunday, 1742.Legend has it that King George II attended the premiere. He was so impressed by the Hallelujah Chorus that he remained standing for the duration of the song. Everyone around him also stood, as required by royal protocol. That’s the reason why audiences today stand during the performance. An earthly king recognized The King, and so must we.
I’ve had the privilege of performing all two and a half hours of the Messiah. When I’ve been at my lowest points, I lose myself in a music, whether classical or contemporary, that lifts God up. Worship His majesty.
While not nearly as melodic, a child’s first cry also showcases God. Nothing captures the pinnacle of creation, the one creature made in His image, as perfectly as a newborn child. So tiny, so helpless—so perfect. All parts work as God designed, made to live with God in eternity although it will take a second birth to make that happen.
As the proverb says, a child is God’s approval that the world should go on. God gave Abraham and Sarah a son after he had lived for a century. The Lord gave me a grandchild when my daughter died. My first great-grandchild this year brought happiness as old age approaches.
Lately I’ve discovered that the silence of old age adds a high-pitched bell, hardly heard, to the choir. A church holds regular services every Sunday and Wednesday at the nursing home where I live. Many of our most faithful members struggle to speak. One lady of German descent claps when the preacher’s family joins in the singing. Her evident delight brings to mind the verses from Psalm 8 that speak of “the praises of children and infants.”
Or how about my friend, who writes down her prayer requests because we struggle to understand her stroke-riddled speech? Or the ones who come in reclining chairs, their warm smiles saying it all? Sweet praise rises from the lady who reads out loud from her Bible, so soft-spoken we can’t hear her words. Their whispered, nonsensical, missing voices reach the highest heaven. I offer a pianist’s hands as a humble accompaniment to their purer worship.
God’s majesty confronts me, demanding an answer. I respond in worship.

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

It was a Monday morning when for some reason Eleanor Fuller decided to come to work a few minutes early.
The volunteer at Integris Canadian Valley Hospital still doesn’t quite understand what caused her to arrive at work a few minutes early in late August, but to one pregnant woman and her husband those minutes were just what they needed.
“I was coming down the sidewalk and I heard this ‘Oh, Oh,’ groaning,” Fuller remembered. “I thought maybe somebody had fallen or was hurt. I went over and saw this woman who was really pregnant.”
Fuller had parked in the back of the hospital like normal and had started on her way into the hospital when she encountered the couple in distress.
The woman, who was in obvious pain, could barely move.
Fuller remembered a wheelchair that she had seen tucked inside the west entrance. She rushed to get it and brought it back for the woman to sit down before pushing her inside the hospital and to the waiting nurses.
“We were hoofing it down the hall to the women’s center as fast as we could,” Fuller said laughing. “Later I asked how soon the baby was born after we got there.”
Four minutes was the reply.
“I’m going to start carrying gloves in my pocket,” Fuller joked. “I was in the right place at the right time I can say that.”
After talking with the family later in the day Fuller learned the couple had driven from Corn – an hour away – driving 80 miles an hour the whole time on the highway.
A beautiful, healthy eight-pound baby boy was the outcome and he wasn’t born in the hospital parking lot thanks to Fuller.
“I’m just very thankful I was able to be there at the right place at the right time,” Fuller said.
Fuller doesn’t remember why she was early that day, only that she arrived just when she needed to.
It’s been that way for the last nine years as Fuller has volunteered at the outpatient desk. Before that she volunteered six years at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.
“I do like the patient desk very much, interacting with people,” Fuller said. “I like people. I like to do for people. I tell people I was a preemie and I weighed two-and-a-half pounds. I’m very thankful to be here so that’s why I feel like I’m here to help people.”
More than a few times Fuller and the volunteers at Canadian Valley have been there to provide that reassuring word, a cold drink or just a willingness to listen.
“I try to make them feel good,” Fuller said. “I tell the ladies they look beautiful. I get them a warm blanket, just make them feel good and get their minds off of it.”
The “it” is also different. Maybe it’s the worry before an impending surgery or maybe it’s an unexpected outcome that a family is just starting to sift through.”
Fuller considers being there for people as a blessing. She feels the same way about those she volunteers with.
“They’re very good friends. I’ve made a lot of good friends through the years,” Fuller said. “I really enjoy the camaraderie. They’ll do anything for you.”
Dana Crum serves as the volunteer services coordinator and is Fuller’s boss.
“She’s kind of an icon of the volunteer unit,” Crum says. “People look up to her and she’s easy to talk to. She’s just a big part of the family.”
It’s volunteers that help Integris Canadian Valley run smooth.
“Imperative,” Crum said of how important they are. “They’re just about in every department. They supplement what the health professionals would normally be doing. What they do relieves the professional staff and lets them spend the extra time with the patient. They give them that extra time.”
In her professional life Fuller retired from Moore Public Schools as the accounts payable supervisor. She paid every bill in the district for 25 years before retiring in 1996.
A Moore High graduate, Fuller is one of four generations that have gone through Moore Public Schools.
Fuller has a granddaughter in Indiana in her third year as an OBGYN resident and she plans on listening a bit harder the next time she calls.
“I’ve heard her talking about delivering babies,” she said.

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Lisa Sydnor’s family has a pool going.
As her third retirement begins this month, many of her family members are betting this one will last about as long as the others have.
“I think I was not meant to ever stop … I can’t do nothing,” Sydnor laughed. “I don’t do that well. I’m not a big TV person and I definitely don’t do daytime soaps and game shows. I like to read and I like movies but that gets boring. You can only rearrange your drawers and closets so many times.”
For the past 50 years Sydnor, most recently the senior programs manager for the Salvation Army Central Oklahoma Area command, has been helping people put their lives together.
Whether it’s raising funds or raising families up when they have no place to go, Sydnor has devoted her life to helping others.
“It’s really not about me but about God providing the opportunity to be the conduit,” Sydnor said in her final week. “It hurts my heart and I’m going to miss it terribly but I am tired and it takes lots of energy to do that job. I just don’t have it every day.”
“I’m looking for great things to happen … and I know they’ll take great care of our seniors.”
More than 50 years of Sydnor’s life have been spent in the non-profit world.
She started with the Oklahoma Museums Association in the mid 1970s doing a little bit of everything.
“I was the secretary/bookkeeper/go-to-gal,” Sydnor said.
Her boss gave her the ideas and she was expected to run with them. It was rewarding and Sydnor embraced her autonomy and her mistakes.
“I learned a lot about what not to do and how to do it better,” she said. “I had a really great experience so I thought I was going to stick with this and see where it goes.”
Fortune smiled on her and she began 10 years with the YMCA in fundraising. From there, Oklahoma City University was her new home under Dr. Jerald C. Walker.
“He was convinced we could raise money for anything and because he was convinced that we could we did,” said Sydnor, who managed the many of the university campaigns.
From there the American Red Cross came calling. She was there nearly another decade.
She started out as a chapter solutions manager. It was a title she wasn’t quite sure of.
“My boss said it was a brand new position and this is what we want the end result to be but we don’t quite know how to get there,” she said.
There were another 25 employees just like her across the country in the late 1990s.
Helping mom and pop Red Cross Chapters consolidate and work together was part of her job. She met resistance but still had fun.
She took her skills to Montana and Wyoming and worked her magic again, helping the Red Cross become efficient.
“That was an amazing five years,” Sydnor said. “I had some amazing experiences and we also did disaster fundraising. It was a really crazy time but we had some amazing fundraisers and we always met our goal.”
Sydnor found her herself getting all the credit for the successful fundraisers after disasters.
“It was one of those things were you picked the people and sent them to do what they did best,” she said. “That was one of the most amazing times.”
A year in Dallas and three years at another company and one month of retirement bridged her gap to Salvation Army.
“The Salvation Army has given me … the icing on the cake,” Sydnor said. “I got to help so many people and it was just blessed by God. It seemed like every time we wanted to do something we were able to do it because we got the money and we could serve people.
“I couldn’t have imagined six years ago that I would have the incredible experience I’ve had there.”
Co-workers say she’ll be missed.
“Lisa is soft spoken yet strong willed,” said Keri Griffin, Salvation Army food services manager. “She is a woman of integrity who stands firm on her word. She will confront any and every situation or hardship until the job is finished and everyone around her is satisfied.
“She will definitely be missed here at The Salvation Army but I know her job is not yet done.”
Her tireless effort will be remembered.
“My first impression of Lisa was her heart for the senior population,” said Diane Maguire, senior center coordinator for the North District. “I saw first-hand how that played out every day in her life…she loved them and everything she did was motivated by this love and care.”

Dear Savvy Senior, What can you tell me about clinical trials and how to go about finding one?  Old and Ill

Dear Old,
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans participate in clinical trials in hopes of gaining access to the latest, and possibly greatest, but not yet on the market treatments for all types of illnesses. But, you need to be aware that clinical trials can vary greatly in what they’re designed to do, so be careful to choose one that can actually benefits you. HereÕs what you should know along with some tips for locating one.
Clinical Trials
A clinical trial is the scientific term for a test or research study of a drug, device or medical procedure using people. These trials sponsored by drug companies, doctors, hospitals and the federal government are conducted to learn whether a new treatment is safe and if it works. But, keep in mind that these new treatments are also unproven, so there may be risks too.
Also be aware that all clinical trials have certain eligibility criteria (age, gender, health status, etc.) that you must meet in order to be accepted. And before taking part in a trial, you’ll be asked to sign an informed consent agreement. You can also leave a study at any time.
Find a Trial
Every year, there are more than 100,000 clinical trials conducted in the U.S. You can find them by asking your doctor who may be monitoring trials in his or her specialty. Or, you can look for them on your own at ClinicalTrials.gov. This website, sponsored by the National Institutes of Heath, contains a comprehensive database of federally and privately supported clinical studies in the U.S. and abroad on a wide range of diseases and conditions, including information about each trial’s purpose, who may participate, locations, and phone numbers for more details.
If you want some help finding the right trial, try ResearchMatch.org, a web-based resource created by Vanderbilt University that connects willing patients with researchers of clinical trial. Or, use the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation at CISCRP.org. This is a nonprofit organization that will take your information online or over the phone and do a thorough clinical trials search for you, and mail or email you the results within a week or two. Call 877-633-4376 for assistance.
Those with dementia and their caregivers can also locate clinical trials at the Alzheimer’s Association TrialMatch at TrialMatch.alz.org.
Things to Know
Before deciding to participate in a trial, you need to first discuss it with your doctor to make sure it is appropriate for you. Then, schedule an appointment with the study’s medical team and ask lots of questions, such as:
* What’s the purpose of the study and can it improve my condition?
* What are the risks?
* What kinds of tests and treatments does the study involve, and how often and where they are performed?
* Is the experimental treatment in the study being compared with a standard treatment or a placebo?
* Who’s paying for the study? Will I have any costs, and if so, will my insurance plan or Medicare cover the rest?
* What if something goes wrong during or after the trial and I need extra medical care? Who pays?
For more information on clinical trials for older adults visit the National Institute on Aging (nia.nih.gov/health/clinical-trials), which has many informative articles including one on Òquestions to ask before participating in a clinical trial.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.