Dear Reader,

When I was a kid, my nan was OLD. She was also ageless.

From the time I was born until she died decades later at 83, her appearance never changed. She wore her hair white, her curls loose and her house dresses floral. Lipstick (always a particular shade of Avon red) was reserved for church and the bingo hall while a gathering of friends was an automatic invitation to a game of growl (120s for the non-Newfoundlanders out there). She baked, she sewed, she played cards, she knit, she embroidered, she read, she watched the Price Is Right and wrestling—that was nan as I knew her.

Older folks seem a lot younger nowadays.

Case in point: one of my co-workers is in her 70s and she’s more active than I was 20 years ago. Not only does she take part in exercise classes several times a week, but she jogs, plays bridge and, she tells me, she took up pickleball in the past year. For the uninitiated, it combines elements of badminton, table tennis and tennis. Short story: it’s not a sedentary sport.

My parents, though retired, are far from retiring. They’re active in their community, have leadership roles in volunteer groups, walk miles a day for exercise and eagerly step forward with assistance for anyone who needs their help.

And then there’s Everett (Ed) Baker. Ed launched Vale Packaging in 2001—he was 60 at the time. Today, 21 years later, it’s grown into a multi-million-dollar company—and Ed is still on the job. It’s an inspiring lesson (you can read his full story in our latest issue) that getting older isn’t an end: it’s a transformation.

That’s why Atlantic Business Magazine launched our 60+ Achievement Awards: to celebrate the most under-appreciated, under-estimated and under-utilized natural resource in the region: our older population.

All their lives, these people were consumed with paying bills and mortgages, raising families and building careers. Now, with nothing left to prove to anyone other than themselves, they are free to follow their passions. They are becoming artists, writers, mentors, entrepreneurs, activists and so much more.

If this sounds like someone you know, click here to submit a nomination. The winners (to be profiled in our September issue), will be people who are rocking the world with their redefinition of retirement as a time of reinvention and renewal.

They are the example I want to live up to. Now that I’m a nan myself, I want to show my grandkids that getting older can be an aspirational goal.

 

Dawn Chafe Executive editor & co-owner dchafe@atlanticbusinessmagazine.ca