Thursday Mornings

Thursday Mornings is an in-depth look at eight members of America's fastest-growing age group, senior citizens, as told in their own words from childhood through adulthood. What brought this diverse group together to a chair yoga class in a small New Jersey town is only part of the story. The truly interesting and more provocative narrative is in the details of where and how each overcame adversity, showing courage, adaptability, tenacity, and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to see the humor in what life throws our way.

Through a dichotomy of life experiences, the author presents an account that is part history lesson and part love story with loss and redemption headlining the interviews. Readers will discover what it was like to have front row seats to World War II; how it felt when communism took over land once called home; the feeling of wonder experienced by a young child upon seeing the Statue of Liberty after enduring a long Atlantic voyage; what it was like to be an integral part of civil rights activism of the 1960s; how it felt to be gay before the LGBTQ movement; what it was like to lose loved ones and continue to live when all life's enjoyment left with them. And lastly, how they confront the myriad of physical complications that inevitably come with aging. The reader will meet people who are vulnerable, yet proud; fragile in body but indomitable in spirit. People who were willing to let down their guard and agree to candid story telling. In turns funny, wistful, tragic, and hopeful, this book is a testament to the power of faith, optimism, purpose, and love.

RUTH MANNINO was born, educated, and married in Buffalo, New York. After working and raising her family in Niskayuna, New York, she moved to Robbinsville, New Jersey to help with her daughter's growing family. She is a mother of four, grandmother of five, math teacher, tutor, and retired business analyst in the health care industry. She is an avid reader of all genres, enjoys a good mystery, and loves jigsaw puzzles, a form of meditation. An active member of her local YMCA and senior center, she leads weekly chair yoga sessions with fun-loving seniors in their sixties through nineties, gaining a respectful appreciation of how everyone deals with aging on their own terms. After reading Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland, the idea for this book was born, and her lifelong ambition for authorship came to fruition.