MESSAGE FROM MARIANNE NICOLOSI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
On meeting HRH Princess Anne and Losing Good Friends

As I write this message, I am surrounded and challenged by images of change, loss, and opportunities for growth and transformation. This has been a year of tremendous growth for me personally and for our agency and staff.

PSGDC’s home on 14th Street is a construction site. What a mess! Hammers bang in the background and staff members search for a functioning computer. It’s not fun to work through, but we are so excited about what it will soon be—space for clients, plus greatly improved offices and storage, and a video and teleconferencing center that will allow us to do so much more for clients and caregivers. Opportunities to provide teleconferenced support groups and workshops for isolated caregivers and care recipients are just one benefit. We will also bring people together at the 14th Street center to participate in workshops on caregiving techniques as well as teaching them to surf the Web for services they need. Teleconferencing and video-conferencing will allow us to bridge distances and provide services to those we might otherwise not be able to reach.

By the time you receive this issue, we will be all ready for visitors. We hope you’ll stop by to take a tour of our newly refurbished facilities at 14th Street. The construction was funded by a generous grant from Assemblyman Jim Brennan (a longtime friend and supporter); the teleconferencing center is funded through a grant from the Van Amerigen Foundation; the video-conferencing center is funded through the Department for the Aging’s Caregiver Program.

Amidst all the mess, our 14th Street clients have been producing amazing works of art for a show at the Borough President’s office. Our art program is sponsored by the Haym Soloman Foundation’s Art in the Neighborhoods and is a highlight of our program.

On April 30, my staff dusted me off and sent me out to a luncheon at the Burden Center for the Aging in Manhattan with Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, who is an outstanding advocate for caregivers in the United Kingdom. Through the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, she funds important programs there. Her visit to New York included an opportunity to meet with nonprofit service providers, so that we could share successes and learn about important trends in the UK, where they offer many more services to elders and their caregivers than are currently available in the U.S. We hope that federal and state programs provide opportunities for similar program support in the future.
Park Slope Geriatric Day Center is about to embark on our 20th year of service to the Brooklyn community. While we look back on our history of growth and feel great pride in our record as an outstanding provider of Adult Day Services, we continue to plan to meet the needs of a growing number of elders in our population.

We remain committed to our mission of maintaining elders in their homes and with their families, avoiding premature institutionalization and isolation. Our growing program for and partnership with caregivers will serve our mission to clients.

In the last several months, two of our longest-term clients have been lost to us. Both were good friends. They and their families exemplified what a partnership between clients, agencies, and the extended family can do.

Ida Alice Jackson Miller, who died this spring, was born in 1904 in the pre-state Territory of Oklahoma. In September 1924, she enrolled in the University of California Southern Campus where she studied education for two years. In 1930 Ida married Halvor Thomas Miller. They had two children, Jane Marie and Halvor Thomas, Jr. or “Sonny.” Ida was PTA officer in every school her children attended and a dedicated
community activist until she went to work building fighter planes during World War II.

Marianne Nicolosi meets Her Royal Highness Princess Anne during a reception at the Burden Center in Manhattan. Bill Dionne, Executive Director of the Burden Center and PSGDC Board member is at right.

After the war Ida returned to University of California at Los Angeles after a 32-year hiatus and graduated in 1962. Her professional career led her into programs with juvenile offenders and to Head Start. Approaching 70 years of age Ida fulfilled a lifelong dream and attended law school for two years. Ida was invited to attend the White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1970. In 1979 she was a California delegate to the White House Conference on Libraries and Information Science. Ida was active and committed to many organizations including the Urban League Guild, the YWCA, NAACP, Jack and Jill Club, and several Parent Teacher Associations. She was President of the Vernon Washington Library and on the California State Advisory Board on Libraries.

In 1990, Ida came to live with her daughter, Jane, in Brooklyn. Though enjoying the time to pursue her interests in sewing and crafts, she was losing the ability to function independently, yet still needed to have an opportunity to socialize. She began attending our program. In 2003 and at the tender age of 98 Ida still attended Park Slope Geriatric. Through all the years and all the changes needed to manage her care at home, the agency staff and family worked together to insure that when she passed on it would be in her own home and with those she loved with her. We are very proud to have been able to work with Ida’s family to keep her in the community and with her family through the last years of her life.

Until recently, Frank Schuck lived alone, with 24-hour home care attendants. Frank, a very charming, friendly and independent man, confided to his children his desire to live at home as long as he could. Though far from easy, his son and daughter teamed up to abide by his wishes and put off Frank entering a nursing home unless absolutely necessary. With the tireless efforts of our Social Worker, Gloria Chen, and support staff, PSGDC and the family coordinated services with a 24-hour attendant, and Frank was able to manage in his home for eight years after coming to us.
This year, Frank’s physical condition deteriorated to where he required more help, and his children and agency staff agreed that he might be better served in a Long Term Care Facility. Frank made a successful transition to a nursing home this spring.
Though it is painful to lose them, it is a comfort to know that the work we did with the Miller and Schuck families is the best of what Adult Day Services can offer. In both cases, family members were champions for their parents, working in partnership with the agency staff to do whatever was necessary to keep them at home. For families this is not the easiest road to travel, but not one that has to be traveled alone.

Since I met Princess Anne in April, colleagues have said that it was an honor to have been selected to meet her and be part of the luncheon. That is absolutely true.

However, I think that Princess Anne would agree with me when I say the real honor in my life has been, and remains, the opportunity to work with and offer help to people like Ida and Frank and their heroic families. It has been an honor for all of us to be part of their lives.

We’ll miss them both.