When the residents at Sunset Gardens retirement community asked
me to be a guest speaker at their monthly luncheon, I said yes not
because I like to speak in public but because of a firecracker of a
retiree named Sheila Foote.
When the residents at Sunset Gardens retirement community asked me to be a guest speaker at their monthly luncheon, I said yes not because I like to speak in public but because of a firecracker of a retiree named Sheila Foote. Sheila has more on the ball than many people half her age. When I arrived, I discovered that I would be speaking after Mayor Springer.
There are hazards to following the mayor in a speech. There are questions for him to answer, and mayors tend to run long. Sure enough, Mayor Springer’s talk went about half an hour longer than anticipated. People were waiting for lunch and stomachs were beginning to growl. During my talk, I was amused to hear some dear soul in the back punctuating my sentences periodically with the words, “What about lunch? Where’s our lunch?”
Although she only moved to Sunset Gardens a year and a half ago, Sheila Foote has been serving as the president of the Residents’ Association. Sunset Gardens is a senior housing community situated at Wren and Third streets. It opened in May of 1985, and provides 74 units of housing for 100 residents. Sheila says, “I like living here because the complex has a park-like setting.”
Of course, that’s also one of the weaknesses of the complex: Strangers can walk (and ride bikes and skateboards) through the trees and down the pathways between the houses, and there are no fences to keep anyone out. Many residents complain of things being stolen from outside (such as plants and figurines), and of watching their doorknobs being turned at night, sometimes as often as twice per week, as if someone is trying to get in. “We just don’t feel safe,” more than one resident tells me.
Sheila was born and raised in Chicago, Ill., but later lived in Campbell, finally coming to stay in Gilroy. She explains, “I retired after I had the stroke, and I have always loved Gilroy, so now I am here.”
“What has enabled you to recover so well from your stroke?” I ask.
She gives credit to a Kaiser doctor, “Well, a wonderful person by the name of Dr. Giap. He had seven physical therapists working with me every day for a month. Now I am down to one. It has been a long hard road, but I don’t look back, so I guess my answer is hard work.”
Before she had her stroke, Sheila was a resident manager for some of the complexes at the County of Santa Clara Housing Authority. In her retirement, Sheila stays busy with her own Internet business and finds purpose through volunteer work and community activism.
“Life goes on after retirement. I keep myself busy; I get involved, and I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty,” she says as she describes: “I do a lot of volunteer work for the housing authority, so they can enhance programs to help others which get very little funding. I also make cookies and sell them for the volunteer luncheon. If you know people who will buy my cookies, please have them contact me via e-mail gi********@*ol.com.
The thing Sheila likes least are older people who complain, “… with no real cause for it,” she explains, “But that’s what age does to you.
“My philosophy is live and let live – Get a life when you retire – Young people should have respect for their elders – Age is a state of mind – Older people should get a life and stay active. Walk tall. And when you see me, please wave.”
