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Most recent content by Mary Kibling

A man who's hard to keep up with at 102

When I made a date to talk with Russell "Pud" Ellsworth, age 102, I assumed that I'd be meeting with an enfeebled old man. How wrong I was! "Pud," as his son Bruce introduced me, is far from feeble. Tall, slender and looking quite fit in a red and gray wool plaid shirt, Pud has a nice sense of humor and lots of stories to tell that go back an amazing 100 years. Pud grew up in Penacook… 0

February 5, 2012

Learn to laugh for no reason

At a recent holiday party given by the Concord Area Senior Wellness Team, we were introduced to the concept of laughter yoga by certified laughter teacher and founder of the New England Center of Laughter, Marcia Wyman. Wyman, a self-employed archery instructor for many years, recently suffered a stroke. Suddenly, she was minus business, minus money and minus health insurance. She… 0

January 1, 2012

This group of seniors isn't slowing down

Barbara Smith of Penacook is a member of Barbara Hanchett's Always an Adventure group of active seniors. Smith and 18 others are just back from a hiking trip to the northeast coast of England. Concord Trailways took them from Concord to Logan Airport in Boston and American Airlines flew them to Heathrow Airport in London. There, they were met by a bus that carried them four hours… 0

October 30, 2011

Slow down and enjoy the view

Summer left this weekend, flaring up once more while I was outside stuffing dead salad greens and tomato plants into those big brown bags I'll have to take to the dump before it rains again. I drove to Canterbury Village to check out a walking path behind Shaker Village and was treated to surprising spreads of varicolored foliage all the way on Route 106. The summer brought traveling… 0

October 16, 2011

Books brought women together

Anita Hickey and Mickey Russo, both in their 70s, became friends because of books. Hickey, an avid reader, dreamed of one day having a television show. Russo, an avid reader, waitress at the Corner View restaurant and people person who befriends her customers, thinks of writing a book about waitressing, which would include the nice customers and the not-so-nice. "Happily, the not-so-nice… 0

October 2, 2011

Just sauntering along, enjoying life

Paul Basham lives "up a dirt road, past the beaver pond," he told me - a fitting locale for a nature lover. Basham is the writer and illustrator of those fun nature stories we see in the Insider every week. He became addicted to nature during his college years, when, at a summer job at a boys' camp, he was assigned to teach nature. "It was a nonprofit camp for low income kids,"… 0

September 18, 2011

Hurricanes of New England

Irene has passed, joining memories of other hurricanes. For me, the first one was the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. I was a teenager. We lived about an hour's drive north of Manhattan. There were no shopping malls or discount stores then, no TV news, no warnings of natural disasters to come. My mother had taken my sister and me to New York City to buy back-to-school clothes.… 0

September 4, 2011

Museum founder is a natural educator

This column is supposed to be about how older people fill their retirement years. Some go in totally new directions. Some just keep going with what has always mattered to them. Sandra Martin is 70 years old. She founded The Little Nature Museum in her bedroom at age 13. Her first specimen was a fossil her grandmother gave her. The Little Nature Museum is now a federally registered… 0

August 21, 2011

For music teacher all of life's a song

While we were enjoying rare breezes almost at the top of Mount Kearsarge last week, I learned that my longtime friend and neighbor, Dottie Bottalico, had begun playing the piano at age 6. I knew that she had taught piano to Concord's children for more than 50 years. She also teaches adults. "You're never too old to learn," she said. Most of her students today are adults. "Many… 0

August 7, 2011

Battling space invaders

Lyn Lombard, a retired teacher, dislikes land destroyers. Her major interest is dealing with invasive species, under the auspices of the Piscataqua Land Conservancy and several related New Hampshire agencies. To meet with Lombard, I was first treated to a beautiful, mostly shaded, drive along the Piscataqua River between Goffstown and New Boston on a hot summer morning and then… 0

July 24, 2011