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The light is coming back, and that's a good thing. But if you're not instantly heartened by the returning light and are dreading the next few months of cold and dark, this is what I've learned about coping with winter. Get outside. It doesn't matter what the temperature is or how strong the wind is blowing. Make it a point to get outside. Ideally, you'll spend 20 minutes walking or doing more vigorous exercise. If you're less than mobile, can you stand on your porch and look at the stars on a...
Welcome to 2026. As this new year starts, on behalf the Senior Voice Team, I express our thanks for the gifts through the cash, the subscriptions, and the advertising opportunities that you have allowed Senior Voice to be part of. Your donations allow the Senior Voice to have skin in the game by cost sharing in the production of the newspaper with our corporate donors. Without you, meeting the terms of the grant would not be possible. Again, thank you for your choice to invest in the Senior Voice. In 2026, office hours will be weekdays from...
Senior Voice readers have lived long enough to see troubling headlines come and go. But the stories filling our news these past few weeks are especially painful for anyone who loves and looks after a child or grandchild. From the release of the Epstein files to, here at home, the painful revelations involving a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation on the Kenai Peninsula, these stories, and others that have surfaced over the years, follow a familiar and heartbreaking pattern. Too often, institutions and organizations across sectors default to i...
As we step into a new year, the deepest days of winter are already behind us. The winter solstice has passed, and although the days grow brighter, only a few minutes at a time, the return of the light is steady and sure. This slow brightening can be a comforting reminder for caregivers. Even in seasons that feel long or heavy, there is always a path forward and resources that can help light your way. Many of us greet January with thoughts of goals or intentions. For caregivers, these goals do...
A new year is a blank slate. A chance to make and keep promises to yourself and maybe also to those you love by being present. One promise you can count on is that having a regular fitness routine leads to a life of independence. This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours lifting weights or running endless miles each week. You can start and maintain a regular fitness routine with the right mindset and a good pair of trainers. Start small If you’ve never exercised or haven’t done so in a while, consult your medical professional first. Once you g...
Becoming hospitalized is a challenging situation —the goal is to become well with treatment for the condition, illness or injury, which brought you to being admitted in the first place. For these events, there is Medicare’s Part A, which provides insurance coverage for your in-patient admission to a hospital. This can be confusing, because not all treatment at a hospital is covered by Part A – most often, individuals are treated in an emergency room, or medical facility that provides care under...
I have many stories about friends who have ignored signs their body is in trouble and made the problem worse. A friend called me one February and-unusual for her-was drunk on the phone and very angry about another friend's treatment of her. Then she complained of fevers and chills, but she said, "On the good side, I've lost 25 pounds in the last two months." My immediate thought: cancer. Within the month she was in a hospital where she lived hooked up to many machines. I watched two doctors come...
Dear Savvy Senior, My husband and I are relocating to a nearby state to be closer to our daughter and will need to find a new primary care physician when we arrive. We are both in our late 70s and are interested in getting a geriatrician to oversee our health care going forward. Any suggestions for finding someone? -Searching for Care Dear Searching, Choosing a geriatrician as your primary care doctor in your 70s is a good idea, especially if you’re dealing with various age-related health problems. But if you’re in relatively good health you...
Australian researchers have found compelling evidence that insomnia may be linked to disruptions in the brain's natural 24-hour rhythm of mental activity, shedding light on why some people struggle to 'switch off' at night. Published in the journal Sleep Medicine, the study led by the University of South Australia (UniSA) is the first to map how cognitive activity fluctuates across the day in individuals with chronic insomnia, compared to healthy sleepers. Insomnia affects about 10% of the...
Winter in Alaska is beautiful but hazardous. When temperatures drop below freezing, our bodies face risks from the cold. As we get older, these dangers become even more serious. But when you know what to watch for and how to respond, it can make all the difference between a minor problem and a medical emergency. Our bodies work hard to keep us warm, but sometimes the cold wins. Two main problems happen when we get too cold: frostbite and hypothermia. Frostbite happens when our skin and the...
When Eleanor Frisby smiles, the entire dining room at the Palmer Veterans & Pioneers Home seems to brighten. Staff and residents say she has always had that kind of warm, steady and unmistakably strong presence. Frisby, who will celebrate her 100th birthday on Jan. 25, built her life on hard work, family devotion and an unwavering instinct to care for others. It's fitting she now lives where she worked as part of the original trio of staff hired when the home opened in the early 1970s. Even on...
Start the new year off right with a run through the woods. The First Howl is in Palmer on Jan. 1. Runners will have four hours to complete three separate loops on the Crevasse Moraine trail system. There will be a 5-mile, 3-mile, and 1-mile loop. At bib pick up, each runner will spin the wheel to determine the order of their loops. At the halfway point of each loop, runners must find a hidden book and tear out the page that matches their bib number (Barkley style) and return their page to the race director at the completion of that loop. After...
On a cold Thursday morning in the Fairbanks Job Center, a small group of seniors gather to learn more about computers and how to work with them. Their guide is also a senior, also still learning about computers. The seniors are participants in the MASST program. MASST stands for Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training. It's a federal program of the Department of Labor, administered by the state of Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, within the Alaska Department of Labor. The MASST...
My cell phone rang late (9:45 p.m.) on a 2025 November night. I did not recognize the number, but have learned to pick up as it could easily be in regard to my husband's health. The voice at the other end said he was so and so with the Palmer Police Department. My mind immediately warned "scam." But I didn't hang up. The "officer" wanted to know if I was missing anything. "Not that I know of," I replied. "Did you do any shopping at the Palmer Fred Meyer store this evening?" Yes. "Did you get...
Four Chaplains Day will be celebrated at 2 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Alaska Veterans Museum at 411 W. Fourth Ave. in Anchorage in the yellow Sunshine Building. The sinking of the U.S. Army Transport Dorchester on Feb. 3, 1943, was a tragic event during World War II, caused by a German torpedo. Of the 902 men aboard the USAT Dorchester, 672 died, leaving 230 survivors. When the news reached American shores, the nation was stunned by the magnitude of the tragedy and heroic conduct of the four chaplains. As the ship went down, survivors in nearby rafts...
Jan. 1 International New Year’s Day. A federal holiday in the United States. Banks and most government offices will be closed. Jan. 1 Alaska Applications for the Permanent Fund Dividend open and stay open until March 31. Jan. 1 National Dry January. Many people now use January to reset their lives, including making a pledge not to drink alcohol during the month. Jan. 4 International World Braille Day. The day honors Louis Braille, who invented the tactile reading and writing system, which helped usher in greater independence, education, and h...
Individuals impacted by the October 2025 West Coast storms have until Feb. 20 to apply for state and FEMA assistance. The State and FEMA IA programs are available for survivors in the declared areas who have experienced damages or emergency expenses from the severe storms, flooding, and remnants of Typhoon Halong that occurred Oct. 8–13, 2025. As of December 13, 1,920 survivors have applied for State IA and 1,558 FEMA IA applications have been received. Ongoing assessments and community assistance visits have indicated that many households in r...
The League of Women Voters Anchorage is organizing a Democracy Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Loussac Library, 3600 Denali Street. The fair is open to all ages and is a free event. The public is welcome, emphasized board vice president Shirley Pittz. “We’re hoping that they come and they keep an open mind, and that they think about democracy more deeply than they do on a normal basis, about what it takes to keep a democracy strong and vibrant.” The League of Women Voters Anchorage celebrated its 75th anniversary in November 2025....
Emily Morgan, a 47-year-old Red Cross public health nurse, played an instrumental role during the deadly diphtheria outbreak in Nome, 101 years ago this month. The crisis began when children with sore throats and tonsillitis symptoms rapidly succumbed to the illness. Morgan, drawing on her experience with diphtheria from her nursing work in Kansas, was among the first to recognize the telltale signs of the disease after being called to attend 7-year-old Bessie Stanley. Despite the family's...
A song from 1980, in which the singer describes dating a younger woman, has the line: Hey Nineteen, that’s ‘Retha Franklin She don’t remember the queen of soul. (Steely Dan) I don't know if that really happened. I was only a year older than his date would have been in 1980, and I certainly knew who Aretha Franklin was; she had been on the charts regularly in the ’70s. I'm not sure this isn’t one of those apocryphal stories that are a little too good to be true, like the one I used to hear wher...
Q. This is the year I get serious about improving my health. What tech should I consider to help? A. Here is what I use daily: iPhone and Apple Watch, along with a smart bathroom scale and a wireless blood pressure cuff, all of which feed data automatically to my phone. I weigh myself each morning on a Withings Body Smart scale, which is available from Amazon for about $100. On most days I check my resting blood pressure with a Withings BPM Connect cuff, which is also about $100. Now that I have been using these regularly for years, my doctor...
Returning home to Alaska after serving with the Peace Corps in Botswana, Dom and I were often asked, "What was your most frightening experience in Africa?" I didn't have to think too long to relive that fateful day. It wasn't the time a green mamba slithered into my classroom, or when a flash flood almost swept our car away as we attempted to cross the bridge into our village. And then there was the time an enormous bull elephant challenged our Volkswagen Beetle when we were caught in the midst...
One day last summer Christy and I went out to dinner with some friends. During a lull in the conversation, they extended an enigmatic invitation: "Want to go on an all-day train ride with us?" I had to think about that one for a moment. "Um, what train? Going where?" "We leave from Anchorage and go up north past Talkeetna to Hurricane Gulch, then turn around and come back to Anchorage. It takes about 12 hours." I was still pretty much in the dark. "Why would I want to go on a 12-hour train trip...
As the Senior Voice January 2026 edition was going to print, Congress was still tied in knots about whether to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, which were set to expire Dec. 31. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Republican-backed health care bill in mid-December that does not include an extension of expiring tax credits that help millions of Americans pay for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Four Republican members of Congress sided with Democrats’ petition to try to...
Alaska Behavioral Health has a mental health lunch-and-learn series beginning Jan. 5. It’s Mondays from noon to 1 p.m. through Feb. 23 via Zoom. The free online educational series is open to everyone. Weekly webinars are presented by therapists to explore topics related to mental health. Register to attend any or all of the sessions here. Call 907-762-8668 to email bsalvatore@akbh.orgbsalvatore@akbh.org. The first webinar on Jan. 5 is titled “In with the New, Out with the Old: Evaluate and Modify Automatic Thoughts, Beliefs and Behaviors to...
