Forest Preserves of Cook County
There comes a point when your calendar begins to look different.
Children grow up, careers wind down or end, and time that once belonged to work and family responsibilities opens up. With that freedom can come a surprisingly complicated question: What do I want this part of my life to look like?
For a group of older adults at Crabtree Nature Center, some answers are taking shape amongst birds, plants, trails and people who are asking similar questions.
“It’s like finding yourself again when you’re older,” says Penny Willoughby, a member of Crabtree’s Senior Nature Club. “I think most people at our age are looking for something. Something to make your life a little happier, a little bit more fulfilled.”
The monthly program brings seniors together to learn about nature from Forest Preserves naturalists. But listen to the conversations before and after a program and another part of the experience emerges. People recognize familiar faces. They catch up. They discover shared interests. A nature program becomes a place to belong.
“It’s just really nice to meet up with people who are in the same place as you are in your life,” Willoughby says.
Willoughby has always been curious. Growing up, she read the World Book Encyclopedia, searching for answers about nature that were not always easy to find firsthand for a child living in Chicago. At Crabtree, that curiosity has found new outlets. She has participated in night walks, learned about stars and constellations, and watched the International Space Station cross the sky.
Joy Soderman found Senior Nature Club after retirement gave her something she had not had before: the ability to attend programs during the day.
A self-described “nature nerd,” Soderman loves wildlife, native plants, weather and insects. She has attended Senior Nature Club for about two years and says she has hardly missed a meeting: “I make it a priority to come here.”
Part of the draw is being around people who share her enthusiasm. Soderman has gotten to know other regulars and looks forward to seeing them each month. She also relishes learning from Forest Preserves naturalists, joking that during programs she positions herself directly next to the naturalist because “I want to be the one to see the salamander or whatever is going on.”
For Karen Serantoni, a friend of Soderman’s through years of doing yoga together, nature club was a new extension of nearly eight years volunteering in the Forest Preserves, removing invasive plants, collecting and processing seeds and serving as a burn boss. Senior Nature Club seemed like a way to spend time more time with a friend and more time in the Preserves.
“When I go out and I do my volunteering or even come to an educational program, I’m putting my time in and supporting nature,” Serantoni says. While the three women arrived with different experiences, their stories all show that our senor years don’t have to be fully mapped out. Sometimes it starts by showing up, getting curious and sitting beside someone who happens to be looking for something, too.