Chuck Estano Sr. and his wife, Gail, were among the attendees at Saturday’s Silver Linings Senior Healthy Living Expo at the Meredith Community Center.
Chuck Estano Sr. and his wife, Gail, were among the attendees at Saturday’s Silver Linings Senior Healthy Living Expo at the Meredith Community Center.
John Koziol/Union Leader Correspondent
MEREDITH — At 97 years young, Chuck Estano Sr. has lived a long life premised on the saying “make a plan, make it happen.”
On Saturday, joined by his wife, Gail, Estano attended the Silver Linings Senior Healthy Living Expo at the Meredith Community Center to gather information on updating his plan, which included filling a swag bag.
As if the information wasn’t enough, “they gave away chocolate,” said a delighted Estano, who lives with his spouse of 67 years on Moultonborough Neck in Moultonborough.
The free Expo was presented by the Lakes Region Visiting Nurse Association and sponsored by United Healthcare, ServiceLink, the Laconia Youth Alliance, Visiting Angels, New Futures, the NH Alliance for Healthy Aging and the New Hampshire Union Leader.
The Expo provides a face-to-face forum for the public to hear from experts, advocates and care providers and provides attendees with information, demonstrations and presentations on a range of topics.
Bob LeRette, the Union Leader’s director of sales and marketing, who represented the newspaper at the Expo, said the event helps meet a growing need.
“With the aging population of the Granite State, the New Hampshire Union Leader believes it is important to offer opportunities through the Silver Linings Senior Healthy Living Expos to share tools, resources and information with seniors and caregivers as a community service.”
The next Silver Linings Senior Healthy Living Expo will be held Aug. 27 at Manchester Community College.
At the Lakes Region Visiting Nurse Association booth, Tanaya Call, the organization’s hospice director, greeted visitors warmly and asked how she could help them. A table in front of the booth was filled with pamphlets and forms, among them on advance-care planning and power of attorney.
A gentleman inquired whether LRVNA had care services for a family member with a chronic disease who was relocating from the South; it did.
A former LRVNA client expressed her gratitude for the care she received before turning her attention to a basket full of treats, from which she drew a candy.
“What is life without chocolate?” she asked before moving on to explore the Expo further.
That and other exchanges, said Call, made the Expo a good way for her to learn about what the community is looking for in terms of health care information and to present it to them. Attendees’ questions, she said, “are as important to me as my information to them.”
Call stressed that consumers of in-home care services should educate themselves about their options, adding that the Expo is a good way to help that happen.
“We want the community to know who’s here to take care of them in their home, at any stage in their life,” she said. ”We want the community members to know who comes into their home and that they have the right to choose.”
The LRVNA gives “exceptional” services, said Call, and at a time when many health care providers are struggling to find employees, “staffing is not a problem for us.”
She noted that in the past four years, the LRVNA has grown from 14 to 104 employees who serve clients in 32 cities and towns.
Estano, one of 15 children of the late Minnie Kimball and Frederick A. Estano, said his dad lived to 96 while his brother John, now deceased, lived to 101.
Eight of the Estano brothers served in the U.S. military during World War II; Chuck from 1943-45 was a bombardier on a U.S. Army Air Corps B-24 that operated in the South Pacific.
He said he came to the Expo on Saturday “to learn what’s going on with senior citizens,” explaining “I’m a guy who – what is it they say – make a plan, and make it happen. I’m here just inquiring.”
