Clawing My Way Out by Donna Scrafano I was raised in a family with three brothers. I was the only girl. Our cultural norms were those of our predominantly Italian community in the West Ward section of Easton, Pennsylvania. We all knew each other, and all the parents treated the neighborhood children as their own. Read more
Silver Sage Tri’s at Rock Hall, MD By Tracy E. Hill After a disappointing non-start back in June for a triathlon in Long Beach Island, Manahawkin New Jersey (due to a herniated disk the day before the tri), I was excited for my upcoming triathlon in Rock Hall, Maryland. However, due to the unexpected herniated Read more
McCain’s Final Farewell by Barbara Casey I listened to Meghan McCain’s eulogy for her father on my drive over to visit dad today. I cried the entire way. What an incredible eulogy! It got me thinking how determined John McCain was, both in how he chose to live his life after enduring such tragedy in Read more
Finding Yourself in the Empty Nest by Christina Fain Undeniably, the infamous midlife crisis is not a myth, but we tend to associate this with balding men driving red convertibles. We don’t have an image of women navigating this time of life, not even a funny one! This transitional period affects women, specifically mothers, on Read more
All Joking Aside, Laughter Is Healthy for You by J’Nel Wright Why did the chicken cross the road? It doesn’t matter as long as it’s funny. Not only does a good gag make us giggle, experts say laughter is actually good for our health. If you are debating between downloading the latest chick flick versus Read more
Ultra Orthodox Jews Suffer Depression from Caregiving A new study conducted by Band-Winterstein, Edelstein, et. al and recently published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, demonstrates that even Ultra Orthodox Jews are prone to the depressive symptoms often found in caregivers. In this study, 68 female Ultra Orthodox Jewish caregivers (UOJ) and 44 male UOJ Read more
A new article published this week in Psychology and Aging (Mantantzis, Konstantinos, Maylor, et. al.) found that providing glucose as an energy source through a sugar drink helped increase heart rate associated with higher task engagement. More importantly, the increase in glucose levels also improved cognitive performance on a memory test at various levels of Read more
Retirement, Reinventing, Redesigning? All of the Above! by Donna L. Scrafano As a young professional and a single mom, the answer I gave when asked about retirement was, “I’ll be dropping dead at a desk somewhere because I’ll never be able to retire.” A bleak answer, for sure. As the fates would have it, I took Read more
MY MOTHER’S VOICE: Stolen by Alzheimer’s by Donna L. Scrafano Painting featured by Judith Carlin The medical consensus believes that Alzheimer’s disease has purely biological causes. I feel, however, that traumatic events can also trigger this dreadful disease. This belief is based on my personal experience watching my mother battle Alzheimer’s. The first trauma came Read more
Going Green: Five Health Benefits of Planting an Herb Garden by J’Nel Wright I can’t help it, I am obsessed with pineapple sage. One sniff of that or a whiff of lemon thyme and you wouldn’t blame me. There is something organically satisfying about growing herbs. And gardening is good for your health. The National Read more
