00:00:11:22 - 00:00:38:13 Unknown Hi, I'm Catherine and I'm Gail, and welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined, our award winning weekly podcast. Now in its sixth year, visit women over 70 that come to explore our offerings and join the Aging Reimagined Circle. Our free online community where women of all ages connect, share and re-imagine aging as a time of creativity, growth, and empowerment. 00:00:38:15 - 00:01:07:13 Unknown We're glad you're here, and today we're really happy to be in conversation with Patricia Pat Coco at age 82. Pat is a volunteer extraordinaire whose impact on older adults in Chicago's near western suburbs spans five decades. And back in 1975, as a young homemaker, she co launched the first non-medical in care home program in Illinois, Home Companion Services. 00:01:07:15 - 00:01:32:00 Unknown And this was a life set off, a lifelong trailblazing to come. So, Pat, as a gift for spotting gaps and turning ideas into programs that last for Meals and wheels to celebrating seniors coalition. Her initiatives continue to thrive. And she's lived in the same Oak Park home for 57 years, married for 58. She's raised a daughter who's comfortable with older adults. 00:01:32:02 - 00:01:50:05 Unknown Pat also designs gemstone jewelry under the name RBC jewelry. What makes Pat extraordinary isn't just the programs she creates. It's their endurance and the lives they touch. So welcome, Pat to women over 70 Aging reimagined. We're delighted to have you with us. 00:01:50:07 - 00:01:56:04 Unknown Well, let's start with what what drives these decades long commitment to older adults? 00:01:56:06 - 00:01:58:08 Unknown Well, I was thinking about your question there 00:01:58:08 - 00:01:59:10 Unknown and trying to figure out 00:01:59:13 - 00:01:59:19 Unknown what 00:01:59:21 - 00:02:01:12 Unknown drove me, in the sense, to the 00:02:01:15 - 00:02:02:15 Unknown older adult thing. 00:02:02:18 - 00:02:04:11 Unknown And I think it's my grandparents. 00:02:04:13 - 00:02:06:21 Unknown I had grandparents on both sides, my mother's 00:02:06:24 - 00:02:23:10 Unknown parents, as well as my father's parents. My father's parents only live four blocks away from us, so we spent a lot of time with them. And my mother's parents lived in Florida, in Saint Augustine. So we didn't get to Florida real often, but we got to see them as often as we could. 00:02:23:12 - 00:02:30:14 Unknown And they were always wonderful to us. And I just felt comfortable with them. My grandfather was 00:02:30:17 - 00:02:46:21 Unknown by the a donor. He he would tell his his daughter, who lived with them, that he did not want her to give him dimes for his grandchildren. When they came over, he wanted 50 cent pieces and that's that. So whenever we got to go to see grandpa, he always gave everybody a $0.50. 00:02:46:23 - 00:03:08:14 Unknown So that was kind of fun. And and you know, I just started that way and then married and belonged to Saint Catherine, Saint Lucie Church. Sister Mary Burke was retired as a as a secretarial teacher at Santa High School and came to Saint Catherine's to start a program called Parish Community Service, serving the older adult population in the parish. 00:03:08:16 - 00:03:26:01 Unknown And I was one of her first volunteers, and we had a group of 4 or 5 of us were with the assigned to an older person, where we would go once a week to pick up their prescriptions for them or do the shopping for them or whatever. But one day a week, and that's kind of how we got started. 00:03:26:01 - 00:03:54:23 Unknown Burkey was a fantastic mentor, and she then joined the senior citizen, advisory council for the township before they were allowed to tax for senior benefits. And then she dragged me along to a meeting, and I've walked out of the meeting as the chair of finding 70 volunteers who was friends, ten hours training to do, a survey of what seniors wanted in Oak Park. 00:03:55:02 - 00:04:19:19 Unknown And for us, but primarily a little perk was put together by Lev Levinson from the, library. And he was a fantastic guy, and he knew what he was doing. So we went through all this training and we all did the formal surveys. They were supposed to last 20 minutes. Bob had never done one. Okay. Every one of us came back, and that one survey was less than an hour. 00:04:20:00 - 00:04:35:14 Unknown And he said, I can't accept any of those. I have to be only 20 minutes long. They said, why don't you go do one? We sent him out. He came back and he said, okay, I'll accept them all. He realized that once you got into the home of an older adult who was alone, you weren't going to get out in 20 minutes. 00:04:35:14 - 00:04:45:10 Unknown There's no way they loved chatting with somebody. So it was just a really nice experience. And we came up with transportation, housing 00:04:45:12 - 00:04:59:10 Unknown And meals. And so we began those programs and said to ourselves, if we do it right when we get old, they'll be here and they are here. And we have a wonderful community, mainly run by the township. 00:04:59:10 - 00:05:24:01 Unknown But Township senior Services has been doing wonderful stuff and finally got to tax for senior benefits and and still number the advisory council. Sorry and just very proud of that. Absolutely. And then tell us about this the home care in-home care program that you well launched. That's what happened. Well we were telling Sister Birkeland had us volunteers going one day a week. 00:05:24:03 - 00:05:44:22 Unknown The seniors that we were helping would contact her and say, do you think my volunteer could come another day or two? I did go ahead to take her. I just I just wanted to have some help with additional couple of things. And because we were at Saint Catherine, Saint Lucie, we also had school. And a lot of the parents were from the Austin area. 00:05:44:24 - 00:06:05:04 Unknown And they would take care of their kids after school, but they kept coming over and saying, do you know where in place where I can get a small part time job, where I can make a little bit of money and burkey and I said, one and one is two. And that's how we started a Home Companion service. And we linked up the seniors with these women. 00:06:05:06 - 00:06:24:07 Unknown After we gave them some training through the, to Triton College, came up and did a whole program on pure training. So our people were prepared that they were they were paid by the seniors. So it was anything we had to deal with, and everything seemed to work out fine for the next 20 years. And we went down. 00:06:24:07 - 00:06:36:15 Unknown Stay till to boot. Lazar, who was the director of the Department of Aging at the time, told her about our program. She said, it's a wonderful idea. Don't let us touch it will ruin it. 00:06:36:17 - 00:06:45:02 Unknown we went back and did what we were doing, and she started a program called Community Care for the State of Illinois. And that's how things got started. 00:06:45:04 - 00:07:11:10 Unknown And those in-home programs that are existing today. Our bill translation, which is kind of is something to be proud of that. Absolutely. Now it's is it now it's it's nationwide. Oh, I think they're doing it all over the world now. All over the world and then and all over the States. I mean, but they they, the government finally allowed people to tax for senior benefits. 00:07:11:12 - 00:07:44:04 Unknown And then when the Older Americans Act was passed, those kinds of programs just blew up because area agencies on aging that started and and programs got started. So some of those things just grew off of each other. And, you know, the area Agency on Aging, which is age now in Oak Park, is still around. And Leon Slezak is the director now, but it needs to be done in, I was part of that group from the longest time because they were the ones that had the money. 00:07:44:06 - 00:08:09:22 Unknown And when Vicki and I decided to write a grant for our program, neither of us she was an retired nun. I was a young homemaker. You know anything about writing a grant? But we filled it out and sent it in. And that was back when the federal government was, the new year would begin on July 1st, and we sent it to the agency, and they wrote back and said, we liked your program, but we don't have enough money to sign you. 00:08:09:22 - 00:08:28:00 Unknown We're sorry. Come on down with you. Want to fight it or not? Fight it to defend it. So the two of us took the yellow, went downtown. We walked into this meeting with 28 people at a board and the two of us. Each other went, oh my God. Well, we'll just tell them about our program. And then leave. 00:08:28:02 - 00:08:49:16 Unknown So we did the back on the yellow. We're looking at it so great. Who was that was amazing. So we didn't do anything more. But then the government changed to the fiscal year of October 1st. Put up more money for the Older Americans Act. Their agency liked our report so well, they came back and said, here's money when you program. 00:08:49:18 - 00:09:23:11 Unknown And they gave us $32,000. At that oh, retired nun, homemaker, $32,000 of what? It was so much money, we couldn't even begin to believe that we had money like that. So we were able to hire someone to do in-home work, in-home care, phone, phone calls and stuff. And when we hired Également Ellen, who was also one of our companions, never knew Ellen was kind of old until she asked for a question about Social Security. 00:09:23:11 - 00:09:42:19 Unknown And I, because I is part of organizations. I contacted my friend in Social Security. We were on the phone, I was in the office with her, and he said, well, how old is she? I said, Ellen, how old are you? And she went, and I said, And she said, And he said, ask her what year she was born. 00:09:42:21 - 00:10:02:02 Unknown I'm holding the phone. And she said, 1895. I've, I've dropped the phone. And I said, what? And he said, that would make her whatever the age was at the time. And she said, wait, don't tell anybody because my sister's five years younger and she's everybody knows her five years apart, and she doesn't want anybody to know how old she is. 00:10:02:04 - 00:10:22:12 Unknown So I had to keep her a secret until her sister died, and that I could tell people that she knew until she was 93, and she was just a wonderful girl. So I love older people. I've always enjoyed working with them, and some of them can just be so. They've got so many stories to tell. They have such, 00:10:22:18 - 00:10:25:10 Unknown warmth and ability to help others. 00:10:25:12 - 00:10:28:12 Unknown you have this uncanny ability to 00:10:28:14 - 00:10:31:12 Unknown recognize what's missing, what's not there, and then 00:10:31:12 - 00:10:40:18 Unknown you create something that lasts. And so I'm just wondering about a curious about your qualities as a leader. What makes you such an effective leader 00:10:40:22 - 00:10:42:22 Unknown I like to get to know people. 00:10:42:24 - 00:10:47:15 Unknown I'm a talker and a I guess what is very say, angry 00:10:47:17 - 00:10:58:15 Unknown talk to people. I'm an extrovert. That's the word she said. So I, I talk to people and get to know what their interests are. And there's something coming up. I suggest maybe they might want to be part of it. 00:10:58:17 - 00:11:26:03 Unknown And we started the coordinating council. We were doing something with the chamber of the Community Chest at the time, and we had just gotten federal money to build Mills House, those over there on the Marion Street and tell people what that is, because we have listeners who are all over the country, Mills House, this was the first building for senior assisted living in Oak Park, and we got that through federal money. 00:11:26:05 - 00:11:47:24 Unknown And, Dominic Mayo was the head of the the chest at the time. And he was delighted to get that money. But we all got together that we were we were meeting with different age groups and everything once a month. And we got to saying, you know, if there was another senior building to be built, we think it should have a congregate meal in the building. 00:11:48:01 - 00:12:10:01 Unknown And the up comes this guy that wants to do heritage House and heritage houses at Lincoln. And, Lombard and and we got Ahold of him and he said, well, you know, a whole bunch of senior agencies would like you to put a congregate near site in there and he said, oh, no, I'm doing all all serviceable of separate apartments. 00:12:10:03 - 00:12:46:17 Unknown I talked to the park, to the, village. I've talked to the, housing and the fire department and the police department, and this is what I'm going to do. And we felt that he said, are you a group? And we said, no, I guess we're not. So we started the coordinating council, which is what's still. So this is only just kind of, morphed into a new, continuity of Care program so we can get bigger and better and do other things. 00:12:46:17 - 00:13:16:12 Unknown But for 40 some years, we let the third Thursday of the month. And, Catherine, you're a member, aren't you? Are you have. Yeah. And it's just a couple of years ago they did a tech palooza where they thanked me for my years of starting it and Sonny, who I brought into the coordinating council and she's just blossomed into an incredible, force in the community. 00:13:16:14 - 00:13:42:00 Unknown She, she got a balloon arch for me and, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. And it was a surprise. My husband was there. Our daughter came down, and we had we had the presidents of both communities, Oak Park. And I think where I was, two, all three communities were there. And other folks, it was like 60 people were there was just amazing and, kind of fun. 00:13:42:02 - 00:14:00:16 Unknown So I know that wasn't the only awards you ever received. No, I, I yeah, I've got the two other things. The, Well, Park Township has annual meeting there in Springfield in north, all the townships of Illinois and, 00:14:00:18 - 00:14:15:06 Unknown Pam, Pam and put my name in as a volunteer. And we went down to Springfield for the meeting. 1st November. I think it was three years ago. Four years ago. And I was chosen as a volunteer of the year for the state of the on the right, 00:14:15:08 - 00:14:17:01 Unknown I mean, I never expected it. 00:14:17:01 - 00:14:36:05 Unknown And people came up to me afterwards and started talking to me and getting to know more about what we did and how we do things. And it was just so nice. And and then one lady came up with her son, and he was talk to me because he wanted to see what what he could do at his age if we had a wonderful conversation. 00:14:36:07 - 00:15:08:06 Unknown I say, is this kind of fun? You know, networking and dealing with all ages is important. Curious. Have you written a hit? Have you written a history of this, your own memoir or history of all these starts and what's how they blossomed? I need to alluded to that. Lydia manning, who's a friend of mine, once told me there's some kind of a program that you can talk to it, and it will transcribe. 00:15:08:08 - 00:15:16:07 Unknown I don't know what that is. I'm gonna have to get back to her and ask because I my typing is not fast enough to catch up with my mind. 00:15:16:09 - 00:15:20:20 Unknown that would be great. We we would tell you. Right. It will help promote it. 00:15:20:22 - 00:15:25:13 Unknown you're a changemaker. You've been a leader in your community. 00:15:25:16 - 00:15:28:22 Unknown It seems to me that you have so much courage, Pat, 00:15:29:03 - 00:15:52:03 Unknown that you are. You just say we need this. I'm going to go after it, and I am. And you ask and you receive it. Last night, my husband and I were watching something, our television and probably the whole thing about that Charlie Kirk, murder. And he said, I'm so glad you never went into politics. 00:15:52:03 - 00:16:03:12 Unknown And I said, oh, these are wonderful, but oh, what are those? So horrible? I said, you're right. It wasn't like it wasn't my forte. I wasn't interested. 00:16:03:14 - 00:16:08:15 Unknown we'd like to hear about another side of you, which is your creative jewelry making side. 00:16:08:17 - 00:16:35:05 Unknown Tell us about that. Well, it started back when Marie, our daughter, was. No, it's the elite. We'll do that anyway, when her daughter was 3 or 4, I was making her clothes because I love to sew. And I had a sewing machine that I, I bought when I had my, like, first paid job. Just after my sophomore year in high school, I got to work for a savings and loan. 00:16:35:07 - 00:16:56:14 Unknown Who happened to happen at the end of the funding? The Edison and Crawford business district and Charlie Clancy was he was the owner, the head person is a friend of my dad's. And so he said he'd hire me and I got $1.10 an hour. And I used to walk the eight blocks at whether it was every day to, to work. 00:16:56:16 - 00:17:15:16 Unknown And I kept in the singer sewing store. Yeah. Like I finally got a check and oh, nice. And then he had me type something and he had me break. He said it was. It was a parking structure on the roof. You want me to type with people who got parking slots? I typed it and brought it into him. 00:17:15:16 - 00:17:32:19 Unknown He said, do you think this is good? So rough, Irishman? And I said, yes, I think so. I said, so do I. I mean, did you intend to send him our raise? So I got the other 20 and I just flew home. Avoiding the singer selling story. I said, how much on the sewing machines? And then I raised. 00:17:32:19 - 00:17:54:09 Unknown I saved my money and saved my money until I could buy it. But I had to buy it, and I think it was a three month payment thing and my father was furious. We don't buy an untimely pay for cash. Okay there, but I will get it paid off, I promise. And I did, and I still have that same sewing machine, and I actually made him a suit or two. 00:17:54:11 - 00:18:16:16 Unknown Would. That's the way machine. So that's how I started. And I started stitching, clothes for Marie. And then there was a pattern and I just an embroidery on it, and I liked that. And then I took the class and then I, I joined the trade of needles killed in Oak Park. And we learn all kinds of through techniques and beading was one of them. 00:18:16:17 - 00:18:50:07 Unknown And I just took to it like a duck to water. And I just started doing beading and buying beads, making jewelry and, and like, lots of sales and things in those days. And I haven't done too much lately, but I really want to get back to it if I can. Last. Last year I, I wasn't feeling well, so I just the two sales that I hope to go to this year, I name us one of them because it's going to be in December, and Marie and I hopefully will be on a vacation at that time because we like to travel. 00:18:50:09 - 00:18:59:15 Unknown But when I, when I travel, like one year ago, we, we ran a cruise and I made earrings for all the girls on the ship. And we had a lot of fun sharing that with them. 00:18:59:20 - 00:19:05:14 Unknown kind of beads do you do you use are you using clay beads or stones or what. 00:19:05:14 - 00:19:06:11 Unknown What do you use? 00:19:06:13 - 00:19:08:03 Unknown pearls, 00:19:08:05 - 00:19:13:14 Unknown many stones, many different stones. Obsidian. Quartz. 00:19:13:20 - 00:19:36:17 Unknown Whatever. Whatever appeals to me at the moment. Like get a black necklace. I'm about to start. It's black obsidian and it's got pieces, too. I think it's going to be pretty special. And it'll be for the old book, fundraiser. And then I'm going to be doing another one for our Zonta Club for the, conference in October. 00:19:36:19 - 00:20:11:01 Unknown But club is they're trying to franchise a service organization for women, and it's still in existence. It's 1919, and I joined it in 1981 here in Elkhart. And we had an in in, in place. Well, you know, partly it's in different places. And finally at Brookdale for a number of years and then we got 2012, maybe we closed down with those who just people were getting jobs and they just we've got to keep the thing going. 00:20:11:03 - 00:20:33:11 Unknown And so I was out of it for a few years, although I kept in touch with my down to friends, and now I'm part of USA three, which is a online zoom Zonta Club. So then there were that for about five years now, and we meet once a month over zoom. So we have members all the way from Florida to the to Minnesota. 00:20:33:13 - 00:21:05:13 Unknown This just fun because you don't have to be anywhere you can be able to train. You could Deanna in a car. You can still come to the meetings and that's pretty fun. So we had a meeting last night. Oh yeah. Last night. Wow. Another one. Other kinds of jewelry do you make that? Mainly, necklaces with matching earrings and sometimes bracelets and, you know, and I, I do them for, like, the, Chamber of Commerce in Forest Park. 00:21:05:13 - 00:21:07:24 Unknown And they have their annual meeting in May 00:21:08:01 - 00:21:22:17 Unknown Anyway, he runs Accents by Fred over on the Edison Street, and he puts the necklace in and I put the necklace, material. It's kind of from teach. If you want to see who gets the most. Most is other the things that. 00:21:22:19 - 00:22:00:12 Unknown Well, he's he's 85, 86 or 87 now. And he has store here. The scene access by Fred. It's it's his playground. He loves to do everything. He makes beads. He does crochet. He does leather work. He does. He fixes watches. He and his wife does cards for just nick people, great people to get to know. And they were all members of the West Suburban Lapidary Club, which means that the Wizardry Museum of Lapidary Arts and Oakbrook and Lake. 00:22:00:13 - 00:22:24:09 Unknown We love stones carving and cutting. We had a lapidary studio appeal for when I was running the senior center and our teacher was fantastic, and she taught me all the essences of hand I would take to find a beautiful stone to choose the right spot and carbide just right, polish it and make it into a stone that could be set. 00:22:24:11 - 00:22:36:05 Unknown So I learned off all those techniques and then they moved the senior, the senior center on the, Lapidary Club and the. Oh. 00:22:36:07 - 00:22:56:07 Unknown Never mind. I'm not gonna even mention her name, but the president decided to give it to the park district, even though it was free rent. A few of her grants, she gave the whole whole club away to the Park district. And they're now over at Dole. And, they took all of our lapidary stuff with and everything I'm doing. 00:22:56:08 - 00:23:04:07 Unknown My father's saying that they should not have taken it. Which one had a sign on it? And the Vintage Fair honors. They were supposed to take it, but interpret anyway. 00:23:04:09 - 00:23:18:10 Unknown just for our listeners, it is clear that Pat, is from Illinois Oak Park, which is a, and and the first suburb west of the downtown, and that's the Oak Park River forest. 00:23:18:10 - 00:23:19:08 Unknown Forest Park 00:23:19:14 - 00:23:27:24 Unknown area. And you've been a mover and shaker for five decades at least. So we're curious, though, about, 00:23:28:04 - 00:23:35:13 Unknown I don't know if I mentioned that you're 82. Yeah. And we're curious about how you think can feel about your own aging journey. 00:23:35:17 - 00:23:42:21 Unknown I'm not ready to give up yet, so I'm keeping keeping busy. I'm a member of 00:23:42:23 - 00:23:51:22 Unknown Chamber of Commerce, the not for profit organization, Women and business and the Health and Lawless, program that they do every year. 00:23:51:24 - 00:24:08:14 Unknown Santa's, like I said, USA three. Still keep involved with the trails of the library. I was an administrative assistant with them for ten years. A member of the sage concierge, board the sunning runs, 00:24:08:16 - 00:24:12:05 Unknown still part of the CSC West Coast division. 00:24:12:07 - 00:24:17:08 Unknown So I keep busy, and I don't want to stop keeping busy. 00:24:17:10 - 00:24:21:11 Unknown I just want to keep doing whatever I can do and help wherever I can help. 00:24:21:13 - 00:24:33:08 Unknown I grew up in Chicago. My mother was a consummate volunteer. She volunteered for mayor elect council, the night club for Catholic women, for the Tubercular Corps and two other people, and brought me along 00:24:33:10 - 00:24:41:19 Unknown She started as Miss Daytona Beach in 1933, and her winning prize was a week at the World's Fair in 1933. 00:24:41:19 - 00:24:59:23 Unknown In Chicago. Somebody saw her there and asked her if she wanted to model for the rest of the fair. She dusted the sand off her feet and never went back to Florida to live. She stayed in Chicago and got a job at Marshall Fields modeling and selling clothes, and that was the beginning of her career in the city. 00:25:00:00 - 00:25:09:02 Unknown And years ago, Tribune published a book from their glass plates that were in their basement. And there's a picture on the cover 00:25:09:04 - 00:25:28:03 Unknown convertible car. Old convertible car and sitting are bathing beauties, and they're in a bathing suit. And my mother is on the front fender of the book was just so fun to just to see her there and then because I like to to dissolve. 00:25:28:05 - 00:25:43:00 Unknown I'm in the the, Memorial Day parade for the old park or for the River Forest Township. As their queen of the parade, I sit on the back of the convertible and do my you do your Queen Wayne Speedway. So it's like mother, like daughter. 00:25:43:04 - 00:25:47:24 Unknown Yeah. Thank you so much for being with us today. This has just been delightful. 00:25:48:01 - 00:26:26:19 Unknown History of of social service and service to older adults and your creative side and I, I every anyplace I go to around here in Oak Park, you're there I try I try to help out where I can't. We really appreciate your being here today and sharing your story, and we thank everyone for listening to women over 70. Your loyalty helps our community thrive, and we invite you to get more involved in the aging, reimagined circle and your voice as we challenge myths and create bold new narratives about women and aging. 00:26:26:21 - 00:26:54:09 Unknown Visit women over 70.com to earn to learn more. And women over 70 is proud to be a part of the Age Wise Collective, a group of women podcasters championing pro aging voices. And this week, we shine the light on gerontologist Sally Duplantier. She hosts Wellness Wednesdays and these free and recorded webinars feature experts on topics about healthy aging. 00:26:54:11 - 00:26:58:00 Unknown Visit My Zinc life.com to learn more.