Chances are you know some­one who has Parkinson’s dis­ease. If not, you may be famil­iar with the actor Michael J. Fox, per­haps the most well-known per­son with Parkinson’s, a pro­gres­sive, degen­er­a­tive neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­ease. Suzie Lefever, MA, PT, ATC, of San Juan Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py says she is see­ing more peo­ple with Parkinson’s all the time. About  Con­tin­ue Reading

On the first Fri­day of each month from 7:00 to 9:00 pm peo­ple of all ages and abil­i­ties gath­er at the Mullis Cen­ter for a fun evening of swing danc­ing. Instruc­tor Bill Gin­cig, who comes over from Orcas, has a wealth of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence in dance. He explained to me that “swing” encom­pass­es; rhum­ba,  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Peg­gy Sue McRae… The smells of sum­mer, Noot­ka ros­es, Ocean Spray, and sea­weed often trig­ger mem­o­ries for me of child­hood sum­mers spent at the beach in my grand­par­ents cab­in. Perched on a rocky point with water on three sides the cab­in was affec­tion­ate­ly named, “The Bar­na­cle”. Dec­o­rat­ed with gar­lands of fish­ing floats strung by my  Con­tin­ue Reading

A day trip to the main­land was nev­er so easy. This week I got on the Mullis Cen­ter van for the Mt Ver­non trip. Every month the van makes two main­land trips to facil­i­tate mem­bers of the Mullis Cen­ter with med­ical appoint­ments or shop­ping needs, one trip to Mt Ver­non and one to Belling­ham. The cost  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Peg­gy Sue McRae — Music is good for your brain. Most of us have expe­ri­enced hear­ing a piece of music and being trans­port­ed in time. Play me the Rolling Stones, Jump­ing Jack Flash, and its sum­mer, and I’m a teenag­er. That is because when we hear music, unlike oth­er activ­i­ties that are locat­ed in just one  Con­tin­ue Reading

Sto­ry by Peg­gy Sue McRae… There is a plaque on the out­side of the Mullis Cen­ter that reads, This land is a gift to the seniors of San Juan Island to hon­or the mem­o­ry of our grand­par­ents George and Emma Mullis and our par­ents Frank and Belle Mullis — from Ina Mullis Gustin, James and Flo­rence  Con­tin­ue Reading

Island Senior is writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae… Last week I stopped by the Vil­lage at the Har­bour to par­tic­i­pate in a Mem­o­ry Café. Mem­o­ry Cafe pro­grams orig­i­nat­ed in Eng­land about 15 years ago and have since become pop­u­lar through­out Europe and the Unit­ed States. The goal of the Mem­o­ry Café is to pro­vide a friend­ly  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Peg­gy Sue McRae — If you are an ath­lete your career may end before you reach 40, oth­er careers may offer retire­ment at 50 or 60, but if you are an artist, you may be hit­ting your stride at 80. Michelan­ge­lo, Mon­et, and Matisse cre­at­ed some of their great­est works when they were in their 80s. Picas­so and  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Peg­gy Sue McRae… It said on the poster “60’s attire encour­aged” so I put on my love beads and pinned a peace sign to my jack­et before attend­ing the Mullis Center’s, March for Meals to a 60s Beat, a ben­e­fit for Meals on Wheels and More. This spe­cial lunch was well attend­ed by tie-dye wear­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

Hav­ing just cel­e­brat­ed my six­­ty-fifth birth­day I am now a bone­fide senior cit­i­zen. Some may set a low­er bar, but at six­­ty-five there is no deny­ing it. I have offi­cial­ly attained elder sta­tus. Before bemoan­ing get­ting old­er in our “youth cul­ture” let me say, there are indeed some ben­e­fits to reach­ing this bench­mark. For one  Con­tin­ue Reading

Some of you may remem­ber when island seniors used to gath­er at the old Grey Top Inn at the fair­grounds. With an active base of vol­un­teer labor and local fundrais­ing efforts, island seniors refur­bished the old Home Eco­nom­ics build­ing into what for a num­ber of years pro­vid­ed a home for senior ser­vices and senior activ­i­ties.  Con­tin­ue Reading