Celebrating home & giving back to her community When Marilyn Floberg arrived by train with her two young children at the Billings Depot in 1960, she remembers looking out the window at the breathtaking Rimrocks and stepping out the doors to one of those mild January days that Billings seems to experience fairly regularly. “I…
Artist, Dancer, & Celebrant of the Ordinary Walk into the home of artist Mana Lesman and you’re awed by the beauty and peace, all enfolded into an airy sense of space. Shards of light dance on amber-colored wooden walls, old-timey snowshoes lie crisscrossed on rafters above your head, stained glass glows in a window, and…
Step inside the Gertsch home Chelsie and Jake Gertsch knew that living in town — in a subdivision — wasn’t exactly their idyllic spot for putting down roots. They desired to raise their children in similar fashion to how they had been raised. “Chelsie grew up in the country (between Billings and Shepherd) and I…
Please don’t “dress your age!” Break the rules. Shatter the chatter about what you can and cannot wear once you hit a certain age. What does “dress your age” mean anyway? We decided to throw out the rules and spark a fashion rebellion urging women to wear what speaks to them, sparks that passion for…
Kindness Ambassador If you could define the life of Joliet resident Flo McMasters in one word, it would be “service.” Just look at a few of the organizations she’s involved in — president of the Joliet Community Center and the Joliet Lions, member of the library board, a founding member of the Free Range Banana…
The staggering statistics involving kids in foster care On any given day, most social workers in our region look at the rising caseload that sits on their desks. Many carry three times the number of cases that is ideal. Workers oversee anywhere from 40 to 60 cases at a time, trying to make sure each…
Billings woman shares why you should write your own memoir Within arm’s reach, author Virginia Tranel has at least half a dozen books with colorful little slips of paper tucked between the pages. The books are memoirs by various writers, and since Virginia is in the process of writing a memoir – her second –…
Cyclist rekindles interest in pedal-powered transportation thanks to Tour de Fleur When a pickup truck plowed into a group of cyclists on a rural road in Wisconsin more than a decade ago, one of the first things to cross Sandy Vancleeve’s mind was whether the children in the group were safe. “We were just going…
Finding a way to reclaim my roots Imagine the scene. A young mom, harried, arms full of screaming toddler and a stuffed platypus that keeps getting tossed to the floor that is covered in snow boot debris. The mom just wrote a check for the basket full of groceries she is trying to maneuver and…
Healing the addicted At a stage of life where many people are enjoying their friends and family and a quiet retirement, Polly Eames is on the move. At 80 years old, Polly, an addiction counselor at Rimrock Foundation, is sharper and in better shape than many people half her age. A lifelong Montana resident and…
Simple changes for safe, everyday senior living My parents enjoyed long lives, fortunately. They were also blessed to have lived in their home well into their 90s. While aging in place, it became harder for my mother to get in and out of the bathtub. They had it replaced with a walk-in shower. They abandoned…
The toll family caregiving can take It may have been upwards of four decades ago, but Kathie Burke still vividly remembers getting the panicked call from emergency workers. Her grandfather, Charlie, had become disoriented and instead of backing his truck out of the garage, he hit the gas, sending the half-ton vehicle careening through the…
Easy Brunch for a Crowd On a cold Saturday morning, Kelli Christiansen gathers a few friends for a warm brunch. As an application engineer who trains and supports industrial controllers and equipment, and a wife and mother of Beckett, 4, and Aria, 2, she is, needless to say, busy. But Kelli always makes time for…
Kate Stevens gives old things, new life Where can you find artsy photographs whimsically adorned with glitter and rhinestones, a scrapyard of treasures just waiting to be transformed or repurposed items that have been given new life thanks to a coat of paint or a bit of artistic flair? The answer can be found in…
The perfect pair of biscotti & coffee The food world has some perfect pairings: beer and peanuts (and baseball), red wine and dark chocolate, tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, and coffee and biscotti. I was introduced to the coffee and biscotti culinary couple years ago in the Little Italy area of downtown Baltimore….
Fitness is medicine in older adults, building health & friendships At about 9 a.m. on most weekday mornings, Susan and Rick Shotwell get together with a few friends for coffee. There are anywhere between five and 15 guys and gals in their 70s sharing stories, laughing and leaning in for a little gossip. At first…
Letters from the Heart Arlene Priest wears an etched gold pendant around her neck, capturing her then 21-year-old son, Marc. At the time the engraved photo was snapped, her son was a talented musician who never picked up a saxophone he didn’t love to play. He was kind, and as his mom says, “Marc was…
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