Wishes for Seniors of Sonoma Valley makes dreams come true

Bucket list or basic necessities: Wishes for Seniors makes dreams come true|

Fifteen percent of the American population is over 65. In the next decade, that percentage will double.

In the Sonoma Valley, 22 percent of all residents are senior citizens, representing a wide range of circumstances. What the demographic has in common, though, is the confines of time, with less sand left in life’s hourglass than there once was.

A nonprofit organization called Wishes for Seniors of Sonoma Valley aims to help older Sonomans enjoy life as they age. It exists for the simple purpose of granting seniors one special wish, adding comfort and joy to their lives.

“We admire and have reverence for our older adults,” said V. Lynn Cox, president of the all-volunteer organization.

Cox and her cohorts are all professionally engaged with seniors in various capacities, and had begun to observe a disturbing trend. “We bumped into situations where people just didn’t have the assets to get some of the things they needed, and we were inspired by a similar program in Napa.”

That program, called Community Group Celebrating Seniors, is modeled after the Make-A-Wish Foundation, allowing participants to cross a long-held desire off their bucket lists while there was still time. One 90-year-old Napa resident yearned to ride a horse before she died, and so the agency found a gentle equine and - with a platoon of volunteers - made it happen.

Wishes are as individual as the people who make them, of course. One individual might want to reunite with a loved one, another might dream of hosting a large family dinner. In Sonoma, the program has skewed toward more practical support, with recipients getting help with more everyday desires.

One woman who had recently stopped driving wanted help selling her car, confounded by the intricacies of the internet. Another with mobility issues needed a motorized chair, but simply lacked the funds for such a significant purchase. A senior man who was advised to begin an exercise regime lived in a travel trailer without a functioning shower. The organization paid his initiation fees at Parkpoint Health Club - which in turn granted him an ongoing scholarship - and the man is now able to get his prescribed exercise and bathe regularly.

Ann Solomon, who lives independently at Seven Flags Mobile Home Park, took a bad fall in the shower last fall. She suffered painful compression fractures in her back, and once home from the hospital, realized she would need grab bars in her bathroom to continue aging safely in place. Wishes for Seniors bought and installed them, adding a wall-mounted safety chair and a handheld shower nozzle, too.

“After I got out of the hospital, I was really kind of leery about taking a shower,” Solomon said. “Some people from the hospital came and filled everything out for me. I didn’t have to do anything. It was wonderful.”

To qualify for the program individuals must reside in the Sonoma Valley, be at least 65 years of age, and lack the capacity to manifest the wish on their own. The application is available on the organization’s website, consisting of a written prompt which asks “If I had an Angel to provide me a wish, that wish would be…”

For Cox, interest in the aged began with her grandmothers, one of whom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s before the disease was very well understood. “It was a very interesting and trying time for us as a family,” she said.

In San Francisco years later, while walking past a busload of seniors, she witnessed an aide mistreating a charge.

“They were going on a bus trip, and the aide was being kind of rough. It hit me so bad, I actually went over and intervened,” Cox said. “It’s become my life’s work.”

Cox encourages people to consider the elders among them with fresh perspective, and to point neighbors and friends toward her organization. “We need to do more as a society to value older people,” Cox said. “Make contact. Visit with a friend living in a retirement community. Seniors have a lot to offer. Helping seniors to stay engaged with their community, have purpose and make positive contributions is invaluable.”

Contact kate.williams@sonomanews.org.

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