North Denver News

By Anne Button, Guest Columnist Anne Button About a decade ago, I hit a professional wall. Burned out and depleted, I applied for a new job. The interview started with the softball question: Why this job and why you? It’s the most basic question, one I’ve asked many times from the other side of the interview table. Yet I scrambled to come up with an answer beyond, “Getting out of my rut.” I bombed it. Years later, it still... Read more...

By Kathryn White When a CBS News survey came out in 2021 about letter writing in the U.S., it surprised few to learn that the trend sloped downward. Kathryn White Americans have come a long way since the “Great Age of Letter Writing” in the 18th century. The survey found 37% of 1,717 adults surveyed hadn’t mailed a hand-written letter in more than five years, and 15% had never sent one. Data held constant across multiple age... Read more...

By Kathryn White Twice a month, Mary Wilham takes a packet of five letters to the post office near her house in the West Highland neighborhood. In the days that follow, her letters make their way to intended recipients: people who are strangers to Wilham, residents in long-term care facilities in towns Wilham has been to or would like to visit someday. Kathryn White “That gives me a topic to write about,” Wilham said, “I’ll ask... Read more...

By Kathryn White If you’re squeamish about dead bodies, read no further. For this final of three installments about death and dying in The Gray Zone, we’re going there. Kathryn White When I sat with my neighbor Judy back in March talking about death cafes (see April’s The Gray Zone), I realized that much of the discomfort with dead bodies I harbored earlier in life had dissipated. The next morning, I stood in the doorway of a... Read more...

By Kathryn White Wha t is she now, the Grim Reaper?” said my neighbor to his husband. “Mmm. Let’s just say the Grim Reminder,” came the reply. Kathryn White My last column focused on two ways we can undertake conversations about death and dying — death cafes and end-of-life coaching. Writing about death got people talking. Neighbors and friends approached me with stories about their own orientation to the topic. It seemed people... Read more...

By Kathryn White The state Legislature kicked off its current session Jan. 9, and lawmakers are considering more than 300 bills, memorials and resolutions, several of which have made it onto the radars of AARP, Colorado Center for Aging (CCA) and the Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado. Kathryn White I stopped by the Capitol Feb. 2 to watch the Senate Committee on Business, Labor and Technology consider a bill that would chip away... Read more...

By Kathryn White I appreciate many things about writing this column and ranking high among them is the growing list of interesting people who have become my sources. In 2022 I leaned on more than 30 people for my coverage and I’ve invited a few of them back as we enter 2023. Kathryn White I asked the following individuals if there was a book or podcast they learned from last year—one that brought inspiration, new ideas or... Read more...

By Kathryn White When I heard Virginia Gonzales’ voice on the other end of the phone, I wondered what kind of news she had for me. I covered Gonzales’ retirement for The Denver North Star back in October 2021. The long-time Sunnyside businesswoman had just celebrated her retirement from Hair on Earth salon on West 46th Avenue. Kathryn White Before selling her business, Gonzales had taken up softball for the first time. Her... Read more...

By Kathryn White There’s a new type of program popping up at universities across the country. It’s geared toward a segment of learners not unlike higher education’s longer-held target demographic, recent high school graduates. Kathryn White Students in this new wave of programs are adults in what Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a writer, entrepreneur, and consultant for gender and generational balance, calls the Third Quarter (age 50-75) of... Read more...

By Kathryn White When longtime Northside resident Janine Vanderburg, director of Changing the Narrative, got a call from Dr. Becca Levy, Ph.D., about connecting her audiences with Levy’s new book, Vanderburg didn’t hesitate. Kathryn White “The first few chapters about Dr. Levy’s research are what I’ve found in my work to be what makes the book so effective, and dangerous,” Vanderburg said. “I consider the book dangerous because it... Read more...