This February marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Black History Month, created in 1926 by Harvard-trained historian and educator Carter G. Woodson to promote fair representation of Black history and accomplishments. By the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement, “Negro History Week” had expanded to a ...

As a widower going into the seventh decade of my life, I began to consider what it would be like to be in an intimate relationship again. A wise friend I spoke with about this told me, “At your age, your relationship can look like whatever you want it to look like."

When my husband died nine years ago, I suddenly found myself single again after 48 years in a loving, creative partnership. After giving myself time to adapt to such a big loss and change, I realized that I still longed for sex and physical closeness. I was also aware of my daunting insecurity about my aging ...

Mark your calendars for the 2026 Humboldt Senior Resource Center (HSRC) Supporting Healthy Aging Conference, Thursday, May 14, at the Sequoia Conference Center in Eureka. This full-day conference continues the tradition of HSRC’s successful and longstanding Dementia Care Conference series. This year’s confere...

The Behavioral Health services program at Humboldt Senior Resource Center (HSRC) supports mental and emotional well-being as an essential part of healthy aging. As February and Valentine’s Day invite reflection on love and relationships, it’s also a good time to talk about intimacy — what it means, how it cha...

One night when I’m in pain, I ask my partner to put his hand on my back and simply rest it there. I’ve had three back surgeries for nerve damage and I also have postherpedic neuralgia, a complication of shingles. I’ve tried myriad medications and alternative treatments, too. Nothing helps as much as my lover’...

Twenty-five years ago, I had the honor to direct Humboldt County’s first local production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.” It sold out every seat for three nights. Back then, Eureka Theater board members — none of whom had a vagina — refused to put the word “vagina” on the marquee. It simply read, “Mo...

When British poet laureate John Betjeman was asked what he regretted not long before he died at 77 in 1984, he supposedly replied that he wished he’d had more sex. In our 50s… Despite children and work and moving forward with still strong sexual attraction, we always found time for lovemaking. And more good n...

I was born and raised in Kansas and received my religious guidance from my grandmother. Our church believed that lipstick or dancing were the devil’s work. That should give you a clue that sex was not a topic discussed at the dinner table. Remember when Elvis was on “The Ed Sullivan Show”? I was excited. I tu...

To the Editor: For years, I’ve been distressed about the anger and disrespect between the political Left and Right in our nation and in Humboldt County. I was a staunch Democrat most of my life, but in 2015-2016 something unexpected happened. I had volunteered with Betty Chinn for a couple of years and wanted...

To the Editor: I am absolutely compelled to write you. I was recently in Eureka’s hospital ICU and then transferred to the hospital in Fortuna. I felt like I was in hospitals in Beverly Hills! The people in both locations — from the cleaning staff, nutritionists, nurses and aides, doctors and administrators —...

I am no longer the fragrance of apples. My hair spilling down and around my partner’s chest is only a distant memory. My curves ... are gone. I am medicated powder in the folds of my belly and under cotton flannel, Arnica on my hammer toes. Our blanket, old, frayed and favorite, protects from this reality, en...

I ran into a friend at the post office the other day. She had a December Senior News clutched with her holiday cards and junk mail, and wanted to know the January topic. She wants to write something, she told me, for perhaps the 20th time. “Transitions,” I said. Changes coming in 2026. I recited my bit about ...

“What a wondrous thing a hummingbird is — a flash of life and color.” — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

In parts of the Southern Hemisphere, where the New Year happens in mid-summer, one tradition is to wear white to the beach and jump over an incoming wave while clutching a flute of champagne. Here in Humboldt, that’s a good way to find yourself too intimate with a cold sneaker wave — although that’s the goal ...

One thing — among many — that makes Trinidad special is the weekly Song Circle on Sunday afternoons. Free to anyone who enjoys singing, the group gathers to sing from two songbooks that include a vast number of classic folk songs from the Beatles and Judy Collins to Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, accompanied by p...

When life shifts — new chapters, uncertain moments, unexpected turns — one thing has the power to steady us: friendship. It’s the laughter that shows up in hard seasons, the encouragement that reminds us we are not alone, and the quiet support that fills the spaces where words fall short.

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’” ― Alfred Lord Tennyson “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” ― Dolly Parton

The heart is a muscle. It has four houses, called chambers — which in Greek or Latin refers to something with an arch over it, and in French refers to a private room. In these rooms, we supposedly keep our innermost secrets. Each chamber has a door, called valves, which on their best behavior neatly open and ...

I am at an age where I might forget what I was looking for in the garage, but I can still recite the Pledge of Allegiance and countless nursery rhymes. As a child, I read along, memorized and repeated over the years each of these “sweet” nursery rhymes without thinking about the horrors behind the words. I no...