GINA SHARES HER STORY

Gina loves the sound of good music, which is natural enough for someone whose long career was largely spent as a copy writer and editor in the New York music world. These days, this Seventy Something grandmother can be found walking a mile a day around her town out on Long Island. She uses a cane mainly for balance, and, one might imagine, perhaps using it to tap out the notes of a piece of music she fondly recalls from her years in the business.

Gina lives in the village of Bellmore and she not only takes walks to stay healthy, she watches her diet, relishes her visits with her nearby son’s family, especially the two grandkids, reads voraciously, plays classical music on her keyboard and sings a song or two just to keep her voice tuned up. She also spends time in the local library and takes the Long Island Railroad into the city now and then, visiting museums, galleries and other favorite haunts from her days working in Manhattan. In a word, the woman stays busy.

After graduating high school, Gina went to work for a company with offices in the Empire State Building but eventually she followed her heart into the music business and knew right away it was where she belonged and where she would spend the rest of her career. She became a writer/editor for the music-marketing enterprise then known as Columbia House, which ultimately became the Sony Music Company. After 20-plus years at Sony, she moved on and spent the remaining years of her career with an opera company that among other things staged performances in Carnegie Hall.

Gina’s main job at the opera company was writing the content for performance programs, including bios of the opera stars and supporting cast. When the opera company closed down in 2017, Gina was by then in her mid-Seventies and faced the virtually insurmountable task of landing a new job. As she began adapting to the life of a retiree, Gina discovered it was becoming harder to tap into her memory bank for something as simple as a once-familiar singer’s name. “I would count from one to six or sometimes eight before it came back to me,” she says. Then she heard about Prevagen and decided to give it a try, even though she wasn’t at all sure it would help her. “To my surprise within two weeks I noticed I could recall names within seconds. The names just popped into my head.”

Gina’s world today is enriched by an active and healthy lifestyle that balances the role of a grandmother living on Long Island with her memories of and regular visits back to the exciting milleu of Manhattan. “I think the key to having a fulfilling life is to keep a positive attitude,” says this indomitable member of the Prevageneration. “And most of all, keeping yourself open to all the people you meet along the way.”