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 Thelma
(TJ) Lofquist is an educator, gerontologist and author who enthusiastically
advocates that we need to take charge of our own aging. Extensive experience
working with the elderly and family caregivers became the impetus to use herself
as a lifestyle research project.
She says:
"I don't want to board a bus to Canada to buy prescriptions. I want to cut
my own toenails until I leave this earth. I don't want to be propped up in
a wheelchair at age 104, a big cake in front of me, a child on my lap who
doesn't know who I am, and a reporter saying: 'She's 104; isn't she beautiful?'
Beautiful is the ability to walk out of the care home. Frail, dependent aging
is avoidable. Prevention takes concentration. It takes focus. It takes determination.
It is a choice. And it works."
The desired goal of a healthy aging, coupled with Dr. Lofquist's fascination
with all the wonders of recent brain research, has prompted her to write a new
book, I Don't Want To Be Old When I Get Old. She writes a regular
monthly column, "Exercise Is A State Of Mind," gives exercise workshops, teaches
jazz dance, and gives talks on "The Healthy Brain and How To Enhance It."
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