Friday, January 16, 2015

New Year's Resolution: Prepare For End-of-Life Issues !!

Chestnut Hill Local, Thursday, January 15, 2015, Page 20:

Local author Jeanne C. Hoff is an expert in end-of-life planning.

by Len Lear

With the onset of the new year, it is inevitable that many people will make new year’s resolutions to lose weight, start working out, stop smoking, etc. but I doubt if many people will resolve to make plans to deal with end-of-life issues, even though all of us will have to confront those issues sooner or later.

Jeanne Hoff knows this as well as anyone. Hoff, 73 (“You know that CoCo Chanel says to never trust a woman who tells you her real age,” she said), lives in Valley Forge with her husband, Bill, and two cats, both adopted from a no-kill shelter. She is the author of the book, “Between Now and Then: A Common-Sense End-of-Life Planning Guide for Baby Boomers (and the rest of us),” published in 2013 after more than 12 years of effort. Although she is not a lawyer or financial planner, she compiled many of the things she learned from the experts into her reader-friendly book.

The book has generated an outpouring of rave reviews. For example, Stephen H. Frishberg, an estate tax attorney for almost 40 years, said, “I found Jeanne’s book a wonderful primer for one’s life. It is informative, entertaining and most of all, gently directs the reader to consider serious alternatives that we all need to address but are reluctant to do so. A worthwhile read.”

Barbara M. Christy, a retired professional librarian for the Library of Congress, has written, “As someone who has already had to face many landmarks and landscapes of aging, I look back and wish this book had been there to guide me.”

Hoff recently conducted a five-part series (based on the book chapters) at the William Jeanes Library in Lafayette Hill as well as book-signing/meet-the-author events at the Radnor Memorial Library, the Lower Providence Township Library and Harleysville Book Store. She also participated in the recent “Sandwich Generation Series” hosted at several Eastern Montgomery County synagogues.

“Unfortunately,” she confessed, “several events never happened because NO ONE (her emphasis) signed up. People tell me they don’t want to talk about end-of-life topics. I was recently told that I should use a bait-and-switch tactic to reel them in.”

Hoff is a writer with an associates’ degree from business school and many years of working with and learning from highly successful people in business, finance and the law. She has been a paralegal, business founder/owner/operator (Blue Gardenia Flowers), a cemetery sales counselor and an artist.

The name of this book came out of a conversation Hoff had years ago with a man who said that he wasn’t afraid of dying; he was afraid of what might happen between now and then. “In retrospect,” said Hoff, “I see that his words were to become the title of this book and one of the sources of my inquiry into the question, ‘What do you want to do with the rest of your life between now and then?’

“When I tell people I have written a book about end-of-life planning, I often get the same reaction: ‘Don’t you think that’s a pretty morbid subject?’ They are referring to the fact that end-of-life planning sounds like it is about funerals and death. Well, yes, end-of-life planning does include those things but also much more. It also includes important legal, financial, medical and personal decisions that some people would prefer to ignore indefinitely … until later, whenever that is.

“After people hear my perspective of the importance of planning, most people generally, even if reluctantly, agree that end-of-life planning makes perfect sense. It was an entirely new concept for them to consider. Baby Boomers, in particular, have an admirable, forever-young philosophy of life that has served them well up to now; however, if they continue to make the choice to ignore the various aspects of retirement and aging, there will be problems ahead. I want them to at least be prepared for the potential consequences of their choice to ignore end-of-life planning and do their best to make wise choices and avoid problems.”

Hoff’s book is divided into five major chapters: legal; financial; funeral and burial; record-keeping; and personal.

Each chapter addresses the question, “What do you plan to do with the rest of your life between now and then?”

The book is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, eBay, BuyBooksOnTheWeb.com or from the author at mgkgne@comcast.net

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Baby Boomers Are Flocking To Church Ministry

Baby boomers are flocking to church ministry

4 COMMENTS

MCT

As a basketball star in the 1970s, Janet Karvonen led tiny New York Mills to three straight state championships. Now Karvonen-Montgomery, pictured September 30, 2013, is serving a one-year internship at Living Waters Lutheran Church in Lino Lakes, Minnesota that will end in her being ordained as a Lutheran minister. (Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT)

JEFF STRICKLER, STAR TRIBUNE (MINNEAPOLIS)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 23, 2013, 2:02 AM

MINNEAPOLIS - MaryAnne Korsch is still in her first month of classes at United Theological Seminary, but she hardly could be described as a tenderfoot. The retired school principal intends to become a chaplain at a hospital or hospice.

"I wanted to stay active and figure out a way to make a contribution to society," the Duluth resident said. "I loved being an educator, but it's time for a new path. I'm not done being productive, I'm not done making a contribution, and I'm not done learning myself."
She's one of a growing number of baby boomers - from handymen to business executives, from physicians to athletes - who are launching careers as ministers. They're part of a generation that grew up talking about making a difference in the world, but found themselves occupied with such matters as raising children and paying mortgages.
Now, they've reached a stage in life where they're able to refocus their energies.

"I'm a different person with a new life and a new calling," said Janet Karvonen-Montgomery, a record-setting basketball player in high school who recently started a yearlong internship that will result in her ordination as a Lutheran minister.
"When I was in my 20s, I thought everyone was there to serve me," she said. "Now I realize how humbling it is for me to serve others. And how exhilarating. This feels a lot better to me."
Although many industries are intent on attracting a young workforce, churches have realized the benefits of also recruiting people with real-life seasoning.
"The life experience they bring with them is a great advantage to the churches," said Carrie Carroll, dean of students at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn.
Minneapolis-area seminaries have reached out to older students with innovative formats. United Theological Seminary has a program in which classroom training is concentrated in two consecutive days a week; there are motel-like dorms on campus for students who drive in from out of town. At Luther, there's a program offering intensive training on campus twice a year - in January and June - while everything else can be done online.
Nonetheless, the decision to enter the seminary is not made lightly, said Jo Bauman, a Luther graduate who was ordained Sunday and was scheduled to be installed as a pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis a week later.
"I was an architect for 14 years and in sales and marketing for 18 years after that, and I loved both of those jobs," she said. "At first, I didn't want to do it [enter the seminary]. I was living a nice, happy, comfortable life. People kept saying, 'God could use someone like you.' And I kept telling them they were crazy."
She signed up for one class at Luther as a test run, and everything clicked.
"I loved it immediately," she said. "I love pastoring."
In retrospect, Karvonen-Montgomery said the groundwork for her to become a minister was there all along.
"My father was a funeral director, and I grew up in a house attached to the funeral home," she said. "In many ways, being a funeral director and being a pastor are the same: You're caring for the community, you're caring for families, you're helping people in need. I think it's in my DNA."
Older students face different challenges than younger ones, Herrington-Hall said, including needing to "learn how to learn again." But they also have advantages.
Much of pastoring involves dealing with life issues.
"These are things that a 22-year-old coming straight out of undergraduate school has only read about," he said. "These people have lived them."
Sometimes the students need a little help seeing how their particular background can help them serve, Carroll said.
"Some students will say, 'My experience doesn't translate to the church,' " she said. "That's not true. Everybody's does; you just have to find the right fit."
She likes to tell new students a story about a former handyman who graduated a few years ago and got a job at a church in a small Iowa farming town. The close-knit community was slow to embrace strangers.
"Some of the men wouldn't come to church because he was there," she said. "Then he started going out to the farms and helping hang drywall. It created an incredible connection. Everybody's gifts are valuable."

deathternity