Hi Readers, I am sharing a story written by Dr. Harry “Rick” Moody, who knew Dr. Hively for many years. She was a seminal thinker on gerontology and aging and will be sorely missed. AgeDoc
“Twelve years ago, Jan Hively and Moira Allan co-founded
the Pass It On Network, bringing people together to transform how the world
sees aging.
To the very end of her life, Jan lived fully by her
mantra: “Meaningful work, paid or unpaid, through the last breath.” I met Jan
years ago at a national Positive Aging conference and we immediately recognized
each other as fellow travelers. Just two weeks before her passing, Jan
participated in a Pass It On Network 50/50 online conversation. Even on Zoom, I
saw her quiet passion “through the last breath.” A year earlier she shared
with me, for my climate book, a powerful dream that conveyed her own vision to
“seek the everlasting,” That dream reflected the intergenerational spirit Jan
adopted in her many roles in the USA and then on a global basis.
Jan Hively did remarkable things earlier in life,
including public political leadership. But she said that the best years of her
life were her 70s. That’s when she co-founded three different grassroots
networks connecting positive aging advocates. She was always for me the model
of lifelong learning I have aspired to. Jan said, over and over again “I
believe that we learn to be elders in later life.” The key element is her
commitment to work on shaping the future for generations to come. She was inspired
by the Hopi Indian Chief’s poem “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Pondering her own dream, “Seek The Everlasting,” she told me she felt
overwhelmed with gratitude because each of her own children, in their
environmental work, had given her an extraordinary gift by contributing
directly to the capacity of the earth to heal and renew its place in an
everlasting universe.
Thank you, Jan, for the gift you have given to me and
to so many more than you. Like so many she inspired, we are learning to be an elder
in later life.”
For more on the
Pass It On Network, visit:
https://www.passitonnetwork.org/
