As a group of seniors talked with LaGrange College nursing students about their lives and how they’ve managed to age gracefully, they also had a message for future caretakers.

“We too have a mind,” said Connie Coldwell, one of five senior adults invited to speak to the group this past week.

The nursing program, which in-cludes a class on aging and geriatrics, holds the symposium once a year so nursing students can hear directly from older residents like those they may eventually care for, said Maranah Sauter, a registered nurse and chairwoman of the college’s professional programs division.

The candid moment between the students and the seniors came after one of the students asked if the seniors ever had been treated differently or had negative experiences because of their age.

“Oh!” senior Hugh Vines said with a knowing tone when the question was asked.

Vines, a retired minister and World War II Navy veteran, said there were times he resented something that was said, but he tried not to let it bother him.

Rita Kitts, a woman in her mid-90s who has received four degrees from the college - the most recent in 2008 - said she’s had similar experiences.

“When I’m out with this,” she said, pointing to her adorned walker, “or with a wheelchair or a cane, no one talks to me. They talk to the person who’s with me, the person who is pushing the chair. I don’t know if it’s because they can make eye contact with them or not. Maybe they don’t know what to say.”

Jeanette Schroeder, the grandmother of nursing student Katherine Schroeder and a former nursing administrator herself, said older residents do need help with some things, “but we can make decisions.”

Jeanette Schroeder’s elderly mother lived with her for several years before her death and would always request her Social Security check to be cashed a certain way: a specific number of $20 bills, fives and ones.

“She handled her own money up until the very last,” Jeanette Schroeder said. “If the (elderly person) has Alzheimer’s, then that’s a different story.”

Vines said he was the primary caretaker for his wife for years before she died of Alzheimer’s.

“She would say things that hurt, but their mind is not on what they’re saying,” he said.

Jeanette Schroeder told the students that nursing “is a great career.” She chose to be a nurse after her own mother had her appendix out in the 1940s.

“That was before antibiotics so she was in the hospital for six weeks,” she recalled. “We’d go see her every day.”

The care her mother received inspired Schroeder to go into nursing, and she’s enjoyed being a mentor to others in the field, she said. She encouraged the nursing students to find good mentors early in their careers.

Emily Sheffield, along with the other seniors, said staying active is important to aging well. Sheffield majored in physical education in college and still has her own show, “Exercise with Emily,” on TV-33.

“Some people just need to learn how to play,” she said.

Coldwell has her own way of staying busy

“I decided I’d never sit around and wait for the mailman,” she said.

None of the seniors said they dwell on past regrets, either, and all say their families and their faith has helped keep them going.

“I’ve been blessed,” Sheffield said.

Jennifer Shrader can be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.