Most of the life changes that Pola Rest has undertaken over the past few years began as efforts to help her 89-year-old mother. Along the way, she wound up helping herself.
Rest's mother has dementia. She needed extra care, so when Rest retired a couple of years ago as a medical transcriptionist in Missoula, Mont., she moved to Naperville, Ill., and into her mother's condominium.
"I was going to go with her wherever she went," Rest said.
Eventually, Rest and her three siblings decided their mother required even more support. So Rest and her mother moved to St. Paul, near another sister. Her mother moved into Sholom Home, which offers assisted living and other types of senior care.
Looking for a project, Rest developed a campaign around a problem she'd noticed her mother encountering: requests in the mail for money from fraudulent or questionable organizations.
"She can't tell the difference between something that's legitimate" and one that, let's say, does not put donations to the best possible use. Rest developed and taught a class to help seniors recognize the difference.
Meanwhile, Rest was working on a different life-changing project. Back in Naperville, she had taken a class called Ageless Grace, a form of exercise designed especially for people with-age related physical or cognitive limitations.
Rest thought Ageless Grace might improve her mother's dementia. Done while seated, the routines are intended to strengthen the muscles, improve balance and coordination. Through the repetitions of unfamiliar movement, Ageless Grace also purports to sharpen the mind.
