00:00:11:17 - 00:00:31:06 Unknown Hi, I'm Catherine and I'm Gail. And welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined, our weekly podcast. Visit women over 70.com and learn how you may become engaged with our community through Aging Reimagined Circle. We hope to see you at our next online monthly program. 00:00:31:08 - 00:00:57:11 Unknown Today, we're very happy to be talking with Mary Beth Berk off 82. She resides at the Admiral on the Lake, a continuous care retirement community in Chicago. She and her husband moved there because medical support was limited near their lovely but isolated home in the Indiana Dunes. And she, Her husband died in October 2024, and a few months later, her son dealt with a life threatening illness. 00:00:57:13 - 00:01:02:17 Unknown And during this time, much Mary Beth calls challenges like no other. 00:01:02:21 - 00:01:23:18 Unknown She drew strength from the community of caring people at the Admiral, and from long time friends and as a social person. Mary Beth serves on committees such as Culinary and Lifelong Learning, and the latter is a logical fit given her years as an educator. She also consults with leadership on matters concerning public relations, marketing, and branding. 00:01:23:20 - 00:01:28:08 Unknown Something very Beth's expertise was built through years of working for major PR 00:01:28:08 - 00:01:40:20 Unknown firms, and, in her late 50s, as owner of her own firm, Creative Consortia, that mainly serve not for profit organizations. Mary Beth is, as she says, never quit working and says yes to 00:01:40:20 - 00:01:47:19 Unknown pro bono work whenever opportunities arise. So thank you, Mary Beth, for being with us and women over 70. 00:01:47:19 - 00:01:55:24 Unknown And we want to thank Anna Rapaport. She's the forthcoming podcast guest as well, and a resident of the Admiral for introducing you to us. 00:01:56:01 - 00:02:26:00 Unknown Thank you. So when we talked before Mary Beth, you shared that you said living at the admiral is a continuation of our lives, not a difference. Can you explain what that means to you? Well, the the underlying philosophy of the Admiral is community. And I have lived in, communities literally my whole life. 00:02:26:02 - 00:03:00:13 Unknown We lived my first husband and I lived in what used to be McCormick theological Seminary. We were part of the tenant group that converted the houses to a townhouse association, comprised of neighbors and friends, and people who came together to preserve a way of life. And I would say that all of us who live there, plus the children, plus our children, are grateful for that opportunity. 00:03:00:15 - 00:03:27:13 Unknown And I see the same kind of community coming together at the Admiral, where people support and care for each other. And so it's a I a lovely way of life. And you've taught you've you and others have talked about the really remarkable people who live at the Admiral. Yes. You among them? 00:03:27:15 - 00:03:56:11 Unknown I don't know about that, but. Yes. Is, Every day adds a new surprise when you learn about somebody's background. It isn't the first thing that, you know. Somebody comes at you with. Here are my credentials. It's something you learn little by little. As situations arise and people show what they know. And it's it's extraordinary. They're already learning community there. 00:03:56:13 - 00:04:35:20 Unknown Absolutely. So to sit on lifetime learning committee is double fun because it's a group of interested in interesting people. And then we learn about all kinds of other, people here with other kinds of expertise. That's challenging but enormously interesting. Now, how is it different at this community than it would be if you belong to an organization outside of where you live, where you you know, how how do you see this difference? 00:04:35:22 - 00:04:37:05 Unknown What does it do for you? 00:04:37:07 - 00:05:06:02 Unknown it's always present. When I lived in the Indiana Dunes. I lived on the top of a very high dune, surrounded by native plants and sand. And it was gorgeous. But my nearest neighbor was not very near. And it's. I had been alone, totally going through what I've gone through in the last couple of years. 00:05:06:04 - 00:05:39:23 Unknown I don't know how I would have fared, whereas here there is a built in community and it. A friend of mine said, a friend of mine who was the head nurse in the emergency room at northwestern. I mean, people with significant backgrounds. She she said when I told her I was lonely being in Mexico without my husband, and she said, well, come home. 00:05:40:00 - 00:06:27:23 Unknown There's no lonely at the admiral. And that's probably true of all good folks. Continuous care retirement communities. And there is always somebody around to talk to and the ones that I've met here have very listening ears. That's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Would you recommend living in a place like the Admiral, even for someone who has a lot of neighbors who who's aging, of course, but has a lot of neighbors and is living, you know, in a, in an urban setting. 00:06:28:00 - 00:07:04:10 Unknown Yes, I would, I would recommend that because what I'm describing is the it's it's a more holistic way of life. There are people I mean if, if I have significant health issues, I have a primary care doc and people here know who that is. But there are also other doctors and specialists around who I have easy access to. 00:07:04:12 - 00:07:37:12 Unknown And most importantly is I keep saying the people that are who are around, we might keep meeting. You know, if I'm, I guess I'm not even surprised anymore. It, it it's really just pleasant to know people who, I'm now playing bridge with a woman I didn't know a year ago where the said it to be returning bridge players. 00:07:37:14 - 00:08:09:17 Unknown And I don't know where her husband is. A contract bridge player. Very, very, very good. And we are not good. But we are going to. And it's enjoyable. Opportunities like this. Yes. Thank you. That helps. Yeah. You know, you, you have to. When we talked earlier to Mary Beth, you said that you are really good at connecting people. 00:08:09:19 - 00:08:47:06 Unknown Well, that seems to be one of my biggest outcomes. One of your talents? I don't have many, but I've always been a person who. Well, I guess a friend of mine says it's because you're a Libra and all houses that I am wanting to balance everything and to bring people together. I've just always been that way and it helps in a place like this, when I celebrate this, crazy place like the Admiral is to be outgoing and able to connect people. 00:08:47:08 - 00:09:13:17 Unknown Something that I enjoy doing. And they must have done a lot of that in your, your public relations work. I did, and it and it worked out well. Yeah. I did a lot of not for profit work, and it helped because not only, people, professional people could deal with. I knew a lot of media people in the media. 00:09:13:17 - 00:09:25:02 Unknown People wanted to know what I knew. I mean, you know, the right hand scratches, the left can or whatever it's saying is right. 00:09:25:04 - 00:09:43:05 Unknown that attribute has worked out for me. And you were you started your own company when you were right around in your late 50s. Yes. So what that came about. 00:09:43:07 - 00:10:20:06 Unknown I worked for, well I, it's a long history, but I, I worked for the Rehabilitation Institute as director of their first injury control control program, and from there I went up to northwestern to the development office, where there for the traffic Institute at at risk. I had been very involved in the injury control and it there was logical progressions. 00:10:20:08 - 00:10:37:12 Unknown Anyhow, when I was at northwestern, I was hired by Edelman Public Relations, a large PR firm, and year to two later, I was. 00:10:37:14 - 00:11:12:20 Unknown Hired by Burson-Marsteller, another large PR firm that had not been hiring for a couple of years because they lost clients. When they gained clients, they called and said, come on over, work for version for, three four. If I don't know, about 6 or 7 years. And I was hired by one of my clients, which was the Boston Consulting Group. 00:11:12:22 - 00:11:43:00 Unknown They gave me a whole new perspective, sale, PR and marketing and, you almost get an MBA by as Moses. It was a very. It was a good experience. And if at certain point, the logical move was to go back to PR and do it myself, and that's what I did, it was added your own company. 00:11:43:02 - 00:12:13:19 Unknown I did, and it was called Creative Consortium. And philosophy was not or the thought was not to get bigger in terms of number of employees, but to bring people on an as needed basis. Which worked for a while and I was able to do that. But after a while the people I was who were consulting with me wanted to be employees. 00:12:13:21 - 00:12:17:04 Unknown I, I am your basic pushover. 00:12:17:09 - 00:12:44:03 Unknown We never got really big. But one client led to another and a lot of word of mouth and experience in one area caused, you know, turnover and carry in another. It was. And my office ultimately was the top floor of the Tribune Tower, which was spectacular. 00:12:44:05 - 00:13:20:10 Unknown You are the city and view of the lake and just a a very creative space. Well, I go ahead. Okay. I understand that you had some role in changing Illinois's drinking age. I did when I worked for the Rehabilitation Institute. I was hired to run a program they called the Accident Prevention. It was really the first hospital based injury control program in the country. 00:13:20:12 - 00:14:01:22 Unknown And from that, I ran, with help of mainly Henry Batts, who is the medical director and head of the Rehabilitation Institute. I ran coalitions to raise the drinking age in Illinois and pass the child restraint and seatbelt laws because not wearing a seatbelt, not putting a child and in a car seat, driving drunk or drugged. All of those same things create created the injuries that the rehab treated. 00:14:01:24 - 00:14:29:17 Unknown Where did we go. I mean it seems is the only thing to do is to change laws that would allow people, you know, to or would not allow people to drive drunk or not wear a seatbelt or not, but their child in a car seat. You. It was Illinois. One of the early, early programs, early laws. 00:14:29:19 - 00:14:55:20 Unknown It was not as early as it should have been. We worked on it from maybe 79, but I don't think it passed until 83. We had you know, there's, there were a lot of people who said you can't tell me what to do with my child in my car, or you can't tell me to do what to do with my body in my car. 00:14:55:22 - 00:15:33:20 Unknown A lot of resistance of that kind. And we had what we did was to bring together the medical community and say, these are public health issues, and we're doing this to save you money and prevent your child from having a deadly injury, etc.. That was it's creating an atmosphere of, public health injury prevention. You saved a lot of lives with those laws. 00:15:33:22 - 00:15:40:03 Unknown Yeah. We know I feel really good about that. Do I do. It was 00:15:40:05 - 00:16:11:20 Unknown Yeah. They had a lot of help and it was really the, acceptance of the medical community who said we believe in this. I mean, they would come to Springfield to testify. They wrote op ed pieces. They would sign ones I wrote, you know, it was it was very, coordinated and cooperative effort. 00:16:11:22 - 00:16:42:06 Unknown Wow. Really interesting how to to frame it as a public health issue as, as some of these other laws where people say, well, this is my individual right to, to smoke wherever I want to or to yeah. So that it's, it is becomes, it's really smart to put it as a frame that as public health was and a number of the public health doctors, like Quentin Young. 00:16:42:07 - 00:17:20:10 Unknown Who is head of, the Cook County, public Health. Yeah. Was a huge supporter of all this. So I mean, to him, physicians and public health officials are so supportive of all this and willing to be vocal. It would be really extraordinary. Amazing. Well, good for you. Wow. How you've gone about protecting the public. 00:17:20:12 - 00:18:00:23 Unknown You are, And I understand that you have been involved in protecting the dunes. Well, I just did an organic farming. Tell us about that. Of, I've always been a foodie and been supportive of organic, local, sustainable. All the buzzwords. And when we lived in the dunes, which we did for, well, we lived as part timers for 30 years, but we lived full timers for about 15. 00:18:01:00 - 00:18:38:18 Unknown I got to know some local. I was I was a member of the Slow Food Chicago, board of directors, and I became involved with some local organic farmers in the dunes. And one thing led to another, and I helped them. And, bringing them into Slow food Chicago and getting national recognition for some of their organic farming work. 00:18:38:20 - 00:19:09:09 Unknown And it just one thing led to another. And and because this is the way I've always chosen to eat, it was pretty easy to make these connections in the dunes where they're not only local farmers. Local farmers owned a wonderful organic grocery store that is around right now, and that's Acorn Acres Acorn grocery store in Chesterton, Indiana. 00:19:09:11 - 00:19:34:22 Unknown I'm giving them a plug because they're wonderful. And, and you know to sort of one thing led to another. And that's been the story of my life basically is that one thing happens and it triggers something else, something else, something else. It's not a very good explanation, but it it's the way it's been. Yeah. Well, you had to be open to walking through those doors, too. 00:19:34:22 - 00:20:13:08 Unknown Sell. Well, yes. That's. I don't know who to. I suppose I thank my mother and grandmother and all the strong women in my life. My grandmother was a suffragette and a friend of Jane Addams. My mother was. Freedom marcher. And a lot of strong women. Well, you inherited it for sure. You know. When we. 00:20:13:10 - 00:20:44:12 Unknown When we were talking before. Before today, there were you said several things had like kind of words. You live by and I and I wrote them down because they just struck me. And one of them was, there's always something good around the next bend. And so what does that mean to you? It means exactly what it says is that whatever path you're on, you go around the next bend and something good will happen. 00:20:44:14 - 00:21:22:02 Unknown I've had some pretty difficult things happen in my life. I mean, one example is I lost my mother when I was 13 years old. That is life defining. But my life has been interesting and fulfilling and very, I don't know, very positive. Part of it is that I just don't stay defeated. And I think if it's today is difficult, tomorrow is going to be better. 00:21:22:04 - 00:21:54:09 Unknown And it's that will say about doors closed, doors open. I believe that that's been my experience. And, you know, I also believe things like. What do you mean by now? Yeah. I think that is probably what I said to you, because I just feel it truly. It's, you know, getting it where it was now. But so you don't say no, and you don't want other people to say no to you? 00:21:54:11 - 00:22:33:16 Unknown Yeah, that's basically true. But yeah, with it, within reason, I sometimes you have to say no. Stupid if you don't. But I don't know. I've had a very, I think interesting life and I met some extraordinary people in extraordinary situations. You know, I've been at signings in the Rose garden, not recently, but, you know, years and years ago and it's things that a normal housewife from Chicago wouldn't normally get to do. 00:22:33:18 - 00:23:04:01 Unknown Now, so tell me that you said I believe my life will continue to be great. I do, I do believe that because that's that round the next corner. And I also realize that I have to do a little work to make it great. It can't just depend on stars. So I'm trying. What kinds of things. Mary Beth what kinds of things? 00:23:04:03 - 00:23:43:21 Unknown Well, I think on intellectually, intellectually interesting comedy is, as well as things that are going to help people. The social things, you know, if I even if I feel like going to bed, taking a nap, getting myself up and out, talk to somebody, I don't know, meet somebody I don't know. I don't know, just basically more social forcing myself to not give in to. 00:23:43:23 - 00:24:00:16 Unknown Either negative feelings or sadness or, things that are altogether possible to fall into. And just basically saying nobody is going to come talk to you if you're lying in your bed. 00:24:00:18 - 00:24:04:09 Unknown it's rather simple kinds of things 00:24:04:11 - 00:24:20:07 Unknown simple to you. But not everybody. Well, that that's very well be true. I mean, when I'm feeling on the other side of what we just described, I'm feeling tension up to my throat. 00:24:20:09 - 00:24:42:06 Unknown And I what I it's important for me is to get rid of that. And if, if getting rid of it is taking a deep breath and going out and talking to somebody for a half hour, it's amazing how much better I'll feel, really. And see what you know, what's on their mind and what's, you know, what's the issue with them? 00:24:42:08 - 00:25:23:19 Unknown It it's a place where you where doing that is fairly easy. And I would say that's true of any. Oh I don't know about others but I'm, I'm reasonably sure that the others retirement homes are similar. Are there any other ways you think about or feel about your own aging experience. Well yes. I don't feel I mean I have an I've had for probably most of my life pretty significant back issues and that limits my mobility. 00:25:23:21 - 00:25:54:11 Unknown I use a an electric scooter. It's very athletic and it's very small and it's folds up and it is not. It's it's not really it limiting, but it is. I mean, the point that I was a really good athlete and I'm not now. And that of course makes me not happy. But I'm working on it and I will continue to work on it. 00:25:54:13 - 00:26:12:21 Unknown Well, Mary Beth, thank you so much for being with us today. This has really been a wonderful, enlightening, inspiring conversation. Thank you. I used to say that, and I think you're doing a really good thing because we have we all have to know there's something out there for us. 00:26:12:23 - 00:26:14:13 Unknown Very inspiring. 00:26:14:15 - 00:26:16:06 Unknown Oh thank you. 00:26:16:08 - 00:26:55:21 Unknown And listeners, make your voice heard as together we change the conversation about women aging. Explore women over 70.com and join us at Aging Reimagined Circle. And if you enjoyed this podcast, we have host. We have wisdom at work, older women, elder women and grandmothers on the move to recommend to you. Elana Landsberg Lewis is the host and she features energizing and inspiring conversations with older women, their wisdom, resilience and continued contribution to improving the human condition is just what we need in these times. 00:26:55:23 - 00:26:59:20 Unknown You can find her at Wisdom at Work podcasts that come.