- And I'm the pastor for Taking it to the Streets Ministry where I minister to motorcycle clubs, SUV Clubs.

After I was cook in the army, I did do some cooking when I was going to college.

I did some stuff through some other jobs like that.

My one daughter, she was always in school.

You didn't think you were ever gonna get, you know, a grandchild from her.

- But the important thing is, that a good diet doesn't have to be a sacrifice either.

That having good healthy food can be really enjoyable.

(uplifting music) - Welcome to "getting dot OLDER", the new TV series where Americans over 50 share intimate personal revelations about aging.

I'm your host, Roberto Mighty.

This series interviews people live and online and asks everyone the same questions, like number eight, I felt old for the first time when... and number 15, my greatest regret is... You can answer these questions on our online survey.

So join us, stay tuned on TV and I'm looking forward to hearing your story online.

(upbeat music) In our Boomer passions segment, Brenda is a motorcycle minister.

After cooking in the army, Karen became a trucker.

Linda grew up with a learning disability then turned kids lives around.

Margaret honors her ancestors and loves quilting.

Viewers share revealing answers to our survey.

We'll hear Harvard's Dr. Walter Willett on elder nutrition.

And our boomer quiz is about this man.

(uplifting music) My next guest grew up in the south and loves living life to the fullest.

- My name's Karen and I've been originally from South Carolina.

I was born and raised there and I'm currently living in North Carolina, which I absolutely adore.

And I've had an interesting life starting from high school.

I went into the military where I met my husband, who is now deceased, though.

But I met him and we had a wonderful life of 32 years.

I've met another person who's another wonderful person and for my second leg of life, I should say.

- Most people in the military have what we might consider to be regular jobs.

I asked Karen about hers.

- Lemme ask you, what was your job in the military?

- I was a cook.

- Oh wow.

- Just a cook.

- Knew I didn't wanna do that for the rest of my life though, because cooks work their butts off and I just did not wanna be a cook.

So after the military, my husband and I, that's when we went into trucking after he got out of the military.

I ended up going to college for a few years.

I worked at some jobs.

He had gone to Germany.

- I asked Karen what it was like being a cross-country trucker with her husband.

That sounds adventurous.

- It was, I've been in every state in the continental United States, I've been in every state.

It's a new variety of way to meet people because of you're working and they are at work.

But the conversations with people from different parts of the United States, it's interesting of how they lead their lives and stuff.

- Being on the road all the time can be demanding.

I wondered about family.

- Of course, we didn't have children.

Now, I have stepchildren and stuff, and my oldest of my step kids is one year younger than me.

- Wow!

(Karen laughing) Karen.

This is really interesting.

I mean this- - I get along great with 'em.

- Now, do you feel like you're more like a sister or more like a mom?

- I always call myself the wicked stepmother.

(Roberto laughing) - And what makes you wicked?

No, I can't believe that.

- I know, it's not true, but I like to say it just because it's funny.

- After 32 adventuresome years filled with family, camping and living, things took a turn for the worse.

Karen's husband was in and out of the hospital for a long time.

- Let me ask, how old were you when your husband passed?

- I was 51.

- Well that's that's very young.

And can you tell us what happened?

- Yeah, a lot of his was related to his military.

He was a Vietnam vet and if anybody knows Vietnam vets, they hold a lot of stuff in and stuff like that, at least the ones that I've ever met.

And so he ended up getting sick and he did drink, but was he an alcoholic?

I don't know.

All I know is that he wasn't mean, he was never anything like that.

But he did drink every day and stuff and I think that probably led to part of it.

And then he had other heart issues with atrial fibrillation and stuff.

And what took him was he had his gallbladder out he had four clogged arteries, over 85%.

I mean, we went to the heart doctor a few times too and he had acute and chronic pancreatitis.

And I think that was (indistinct).

- After her husband passed, Karen had a long, tough period of mourning.

But before he died, he left her with a message of hope.

- And he always told me, "You'll find somebody else."

I said, "Oh no, oh no" but you know, he knew me better than I knew him and because of that reason, I have met a great person and stuff.

I met him online.

- Oh wow.

Isn't that something?

- And we've been together for 12 years now.

- Wow.

Karen and her partner of 12 years have a wonderful life together, attending festivals, doing potlucks with friends where her army cooking background comes in handy, and gardening.

Here's her answer to the final question in our "getting dot OLDER" survey.

Question number 27, here's what I want done with my remains.

- Here's what I want done with my remains.

I actually want them to be with my husband in Arlington Cemetery.

He was my first real love.

And I, even though they are just ashes, I'd been with him for 32 years and having them put in Arlington right next to him and my dog.

And having him be next to me is something, you know, because of my love then was so fresh, 'cause you're young and growing up.

My love now is not as deep, but it is deep in a different term and stuff than I think a person's first love is.

And I think we always, I always try to compare it and I shouldn't because they've been both great.

But I want my remains actually to be with him.

- Is this something you've discussed with your current you know, with your partner now?

- I have mentioned it, but he probably doesn't remember.

But I have it in my will.

- What about you?

Are you in a second relationship after a long marriage?

What's that like?

And what do you want done with your remains?

(uplifting music) - On my helmet, that's my rider's name.

That's the name I use to ride with and everybody calls me Church Lady.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Oh, can't you see that look in my eye ♪ ♪ We're running out of time ♪ ♪ Can you hear it when I talk to you ♪ ♪ There's something going on inside ♪ ♪ I don't know what I got to do ♪ ♪ I don't know what I got to say ♪ ♪ I don't know ♪ (upbeat music) - Here's a viewer survey response from Linda who grew up having to be a sweet Southern girl, but wishes she had been more daring.

Here's her answer to question number 22, My advice is... Linda says, "My advice is live so you don't sit in your rocking chair regretting what you did not do, but perhaps regretting what you did do.

But I mostly enjoy those."

Well, Linda, (laughing) thank you for sharing.

(Roberto laughing) (uplifting music) My next guest lives in New Jersey, (racket smacking) loves to play pickleball and is the unofficial historian for her family.

- Okay.

I do family heritage.

- All right.

- And I go back and I look I've gotten back to like the 1880s.

- Wow.

- And I collect pictures of our family and I send documents to the other people in my family so that they can see because you can't do that stuff and hoard it.

And because anything could happen too.

And then it'd all be gone.

- Besides collecting family memorabilia, Margaret is also involved in crafts.

Deeply involved in crafts.

- I love to, I love crafts, to quilt.

I love to paint, even though I'm not a painter per se, but hey, I could try.

I could do the best I can.

I could put some colors together.

(Margaret and Roberto laughing) But quilting is my heart because you can do, if you can imagine it, you can do it.

Because even my daughter and her college friends, they, after they finished college and they got into their different areas that they moved, and wherever one was having a baby or getting married, all of 'em would just fly there and they would do their thing.

And I made their group, as they had babies, quilts.

- One of our survey questions speaks directly to relationships.

I asked Margaret about hers.

- Sometime I wonder about that, what should I say I am?

But it's been so long ago, I guess I'm just single.

But I did have a husband at one time.

And he is deceased.

Even though he wasn't with me, we weren't together when he passed.

I always have to say that, I didn't do it!

(Margaret and Roberto laughing) But that's that sense of humor.

- Right.

- So no, I'm not married.

- Right, so you're single and you've been single for how long?

- Oh my goodness.

Had to be like 30 something years.

- 30 something.

So now you are a very vital person.

You have a lot of energy.

I mean, if you can play pickleball, you know, you have a lot of energy and you are involved in all these things.

You do this quilting you are taking care of, you are being responsive to you mentioned nieces and nephews and grandchildren and all this, and you were involved in community activities.

Do you, I'm just wondering, did you feel that at a certain point that you were kind of done with you know, that kind of romantic relationship?

Or is it something that you didn't feel that the people that you met were people that you wanted to deal with, or that you felt they didn't wanna deal with you?

I'm just really curious about that.

- You know, how to hit on the questions.

You're very good at that, I must say.

(Roberto laughing) Well, I came up from a single parent home.

My father was around, but he wasn't there in the home with me.

So I didn't have that guidance on how to nurture a relationship.

God put some great guys in my way as I was coming up and I looked hot and so (laughing) but I didn't know how to nurture the relationship.

It was always thinking something was greener on the other side.

And so that's one of my, like you say, regrets or something that, you know, you wish that you did different, but I just didn't know.

And so now I find myself at this point, and there's not a lot of men around.

- Margaret's family relationships are most important to her.

Question number 16, "I am most proud of..." - Being a grandmother and just being able to experience that.

My one daughter, she was always in school.

You didn't think you were ever gonna get, you know, a grandchild from her 'cause she was always doing and going to places and all that there.

And lo and behold, one day, she's gonna have a baby.

And so, and then I have another grandchild who's just the sweetest thing and the things that you get to do with them.

We built things, we built a puppet show with the whole, you know, everything.

We did the connects and build roller coasters and we did all, painted outside and had our easel and everything.

So it was just a wonderful, I'm proud that I got to experience that.

- We'll hear more from Margaret in an upcoming episode, but what about you?

Are you feeling that the available pool of romantic partners is too small?

Do you feel you need to work on your capacity to be more accepting of others?

And finally, what are you most proud of?

The "getting dot OLDER" series includes expert advice for people over 50.

Our growing number of topics will include medicine, elder care, financial services, nutrition, geriatrics, estate planning, and lifelong learning.

Some of us are taking care of elderly loved ones.

If we're doing all the cooking, how should we balance nutritional foods versus comfort foods?

I asked Dr. Walter Willett, a nutritionist at Harvard, about this delicate subject.

- So let me ask, this leads me to another question and that is a lot of baby boomers, a lot of people I know, are taking care of their elderly parents.

So in other words, their older, well, their parents are not yet in a nursing home or not yet deceased.

So they're at home.

And this question comes up often, where the baby boomer, the dutiful son or daughter, usually daughter who's taking care of the older parent says, "Well I really should limit the amount of salt, sugar and fat in my parents' diet, but I really love my dad, mom and they don't like the kinds of foods that are healthier and what's the harm?

You know, my mom is 90 years old.

You know, is it okay to just let her, you know, eat all the cakes and pies and you know, fried foods, saturated fat foods?

Or should we be restricting the diets of the old-old people to conform to something to what we think of as a healthier diet now?"

- Yeah.

Well, good question.

You say one philosophy is we made it to 90.

That's amazing.

Then you have to say, they did it right.

They did a lot right.

And that should be the first message.

But on the other hand, we do see that nutrition and health makes an important difference even at those older ages, that I would put probably much more attention on physical activity and strength building at older ages.

Because function, being able to move around is really important.

And it is, if you don't use it, you will lose it.

So consciously having flexibility and strength building and moderate, it doesn't have to be, you know, heavy duty aerobic activity, but as much as people can tolerate and feel comfortable, it's definitely good to do.

But, you know, people can have a stroke at 91 and their quality of life is pretty much ruined.

And I think a lot of those people would've preferred not to have a stroke at 91 if they were still being able to get around, and see their family, that kind of thing.

And we know that blood pressure control is very important for stroke.

And watching your sodium, having a healthy diet will keep the blood pressure lower.

And we're confident that even, you know, it'll make a difference in the next year or two in terms of probability that someone will have a stroke.

So I think there's, and being overweight puts more stress on joints, more arthritis, again, causing disability.

So all these things still do make a difference in keeping people functional and avoiding outcomes that really do deteriorate quality of life.

You're obviously not losing as much having a stroke at age 92 as compared to having a stroke at age 60, but you know, I think you ask anybody who's 91 and feeling pretty well and being active, would they like to have another year of life or not?

And most of 'em would say yes.

But the important thing is that a good diet doesn't have to be a sacrifice either.

That having good, healthy food can be really enjoyable.

One thing that we do notice that people at older ages do sometimes lose their sense of taste and smell or not totally lose it, but can decrease somewhat.

And that may mean putting, making food a little more interesting in terms of seasoning and spices.

It will be necessary to help people enjoy the food and eat what would be a good diet.

But the bottom line is, it still can make a difference even at an older age, but we don't want it to be a penalty.

It should be something that people enjoy.

- Yeah, thank you.

Actually, that question comes up a lot and it can be very emotional.

We'll hear more about senior nutrition in upcoming episodes.

But what about you?

Are you doing all the cooking for someone in your household?

How do you balance nutrition versus comfort?

Please write and let us know.

(uplifting music) Here's a viewer survey response from Linda, who was a special education teacher for many years.

Linda told me she was motivated to become a special ed teacher because of her own experiences as a child.

- I had a learning disability, I can't remember numbers and I know how I was treated in school.

So I have a real understanding.

- Here's Linda's answer to question number 10.

Question number 10.

The most profound life transition I ever had was... - Was reading a magazine and it talked about this alternative program for juvenile delinquents where they took them on a wagon train around the country, moving every day.

So I just sold my car, put all my stuff in storage and I jumped on this wagon train and traveled around the country for seven years.

- Linda told me that working with the wagon train kids was a terrific experience with positive outcomes for them and for herself.

Linda, thanks for sharing.

(uplifting music) For season two, we've conducted 39 new in-depth interviews with diverse baby boomers, coast to coast.

- And I told my mother, and I'm crying, I says, "I almost drowned".

This is the middle of wintertime, you know?

And she turns to me and she goes, "Well you didn't."

(Frank and Roberto laughing) (upbeat music) - [Roberto] Just for fun, every season two episode includes a new boomer quiz.

This time with engaging archival images and more questions to test our audience's Boomer IQ.

(whimsical music) For season two, we're also introducing exciting new action segments called Boomer Passions.

Each Half hour episode will contain one of these original short films, two to five minutes long about the hobbies, pastimes, and passions of Americans after retirement.

- Thankfully, there's places like MSPCA.

- The father often work in restaurants from three o'clock on to midnight.

(tool whirring) - To me, time, it doesn't mean anything.

- Susan, I have your groceries here.

- Oh, I'm so happy with that.

(uplifting music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Roberto] About four years ago, I went to a motorcycle rally in Brooklyn.

I wanted to do a story about boomer riders.

I met Brenda Nixon.

Among the New York Clubs, she's known as Church Lady.

Reverend Dr. Nixon does her ministry on a motorcycle in the streets.

(upbeat music continues) (uplifting music) - My name is Brenda Gross Nixon and I'm the pastor for Taking it to the Streets Ministry where I minister to motorcycle clubs, SUV clubs, auto clubs, and van clubs.

(uplifting music continues) - [Roberto] I wondered what Reverend Nixon did before becoming a minister.

- Well, I worked for the New York City Transport Authority and once I retired there, I went into full-time ministry.

- [Roberto] Why did you decide to go into the ministry?

- I decided to go into the ministry because I felt the call of the Lord on my life and I just started going to school.

And as I went to school, it just developed from there.

- [Roberto] I asked Brenda what inspired her to get close to the motorcyclists.

- You have trials and tribulations in your life and I think the death of my brother brought me closer to the Lord.

And that's how I met the bikers, through my brother's death.

- [Roberto] How did your brother die?

- He had a heart attack.

- [Roberto] How old was he?

- 51 years old.

- [Roberto] He was young.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

- Yes.

- [Roberto] And why did your brother's death bring you closer to the bikers?

- Because he was a part of that world and when I had his going home service, I kept seeing all the different clubs and I didn't know what it was.

(engine revving) - [Roberto] There are hundreds of motorcycle clubs across America.

Brenda learned about the world of MCs when they came to her little brother's funeral.

- I went and I thanked them for their service because they were so helpful during the funeral service.

And I told them what I did and they had a prayer fundraiser for me and it started from there.

(melancholy music) - [Roberto] I think Brenda Nixon has chosen a path that involves spirituality and service to others, while honoring the memory of her late little brother.

(melancholy music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Thanks so much.

Please go to our website and take our survey and let us know if you're interested in doing a video call interview with me.

I'm really looking forward to hearing your story online.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (upbeat jingle) (whimsical violin music) (rising orchestral jingle)