Seasoned Decades

By Beverly Amen-Sebek

“Seasoned Decades” refers to women over the age of 50 who have worked their entire lives, raised their children, and raised other people’s children as well. Older women fought discriminatory battles and have witnessed unjust bias, while at the same time participated in effective change in their communities. These are the things that strong women have done for centuries without a thought in their mind to give up or throw in the towel. For the first time in history, women have become tired, drained, stressed, and broken from the side effects of the COVID-19, a virus that has changed the world.

Seasoned Decades was a fit and fun health challenge activity that gave women in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s a feeling of joy, pleasure, happiness, fun, and power to live their remaining years of their life like it’s golden. Allow me to voice my vision.

For the last 18 months, these women of age were forced to learn educational practices with computer language that seemed foreign to their world. These seasoned women felt incompetent to homeschool their grandchildren or great grandchildren. They were not allowed to visit or see their aging parents in nursing homes, feel or touch their grandchildren, go to church, or participate in regular senior community events. These issues created a sense of fear and loneliness in the mind, body, and spirit of these strong individuals. We can further state that women over 60 have been sick while struggling through mental and physical illness. Many of these women had family members and old friends who passed away without their knowledge, and were unable to give proper condolences. After these unexpected life changing circumstances, these aging women had to wear masks so much that wearing make-up felt useless and unnecessary. It made these seasoned women feel useless and irrelevant.

The solution: To project an effective adaptation due to the aftermath of COVID-19. This environment focused around a pool of water. Summer Splash is for women in their 60’s, 70’s 80’s, and 90’s. Ten women from each decade were invited to dress in their finest swim suit/cover-up attire to enjoy hours of fun in the sun by the pool. Women in their 60’s and 90’s brought a bottle of wine and women in their 70’s and 80’s brought their favorite summer dish. The host provided the pool, music, karaoke, corn hole, card games, photographers. All these elements created an enchanting environment. All the women did a meet and greet with one another and shared their stories. This healthy, fit, and fun challenge lasted four memorable hours. All the women felt a sense of rejuvenation and became uplifted to live the remainder of their lives with the strength to endure any problematic situation that may arise. This is going to be an annual event for seasoned decade women. This first event was held Tuesday, August 24, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m..

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