"I was worried about losing my carefully crafted identity as a professional. I was looking for something to carry me through that time What else can I be? She decided to do rather than be something new. Hardin Woods would bake a pie every day for a year, using fresh ingredients local to her home in Salem, Oregon and she would give each pie away."
"I knew it would make me reach out every day to somebody, so I wouldn't be isolated in my house. And it gave me a routine, she says. Hardin Woods was 61. The year before, she had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. I was trying to show myself that I could still think and be creative, she says. Hardin Woods made a list of would-be recipients, and on the first day of her retirement flew to California to stay with her brother."
Vickie Hardin Woods retired at 61 and sought a plan to preserve professional identity and avoid isolation. Diagnosed the year before with mild cognitive impairment, she resolved to bake one pie every day for a year using fresh, local ingredients and to give each pie away. The daily baking created routine, compelled outreach, and provided creative and cognitive engagement. Recipients included family, friends, former colleagues, baristas, grocery clerks, strangers, and a homeless man who shared a pie with friends. The project generated warm responses and community recognition in Salem, where she became known as the pie lady. She had worked more than 30 years as a city planner.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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