Uplift Aging
Welcome to the Uplift Aging Podcast, a LeadingAge Texas production.
Through insightful discussions, our guests help reshape aging perceptions. Join us to challenge stereotypes, explore the positives, and empower each other to embrace the journey of aging. Whether you're an older adult, caregiver, or just curious about aging, this podcast is for you. Together, let's Uplift Aging!
Uplift Aging
007: On Leadership, Aging, and The Power of Books | with Darrell Jones
In this episode, Amanda chats with Darrell D. Jones, Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret), President and CEO of Blue Skies of Texas in San Antonio, to discuss the pivotal role of reading in shaping effective leadership in aging services. Darrell shares how his passion for reading has shaped his approach to management and decision-making, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning.
Darrell offers book recommendations and shares some of the most impactful books that have influenced his leadership style. Additionally, he highlights how reading diverse perspectives helps foster an understanding of the complex needs of residents and staff, leading to more empathetic and innovative solutions.
This episode elevates the conversation on aging with takeaways like:
- Leadership Development: How reading can shape and refine leadership skills in aging services.
- Empathy and Innovation: Using diverse reading materials to better understand and serve residents' needs.
- Continuous Learning: The importance of staying current with industry trends and best practices through reading.
- Community Engagement: Leveraging reading programs to enhance resident life and staff development.
- Technology and Reading: Balancing traditional and digital reading methods in senior living communities.
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Special thanks to Darrell Jones and Blue Skies of Texas!
This episode is made possible by LeadingAge Texas' Partners: LeadingAge Texas Health Plan, Inc. and Ziegler, along with LeadingAge Texas' Diamond Sponsors: Value First and Communities of Faith, RRG.
The episode was mixed and mastered by Maxwell Franko.
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Visit upliftaging.org/episodes for show notes and more information about each episode.
Join the movement as we continue to elevate the conversation on aging by visiting upliftaging.org and following us on our socials @upliftaging.
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The Uplift Aging Podcast is a production of LeadingAge Texas.
Special Notice: Hurricane Relief
Amanda: We want to take just a moment at the top of our show to acknowledge the destruction from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We are all aware that communities across the Southeastern United States are facing immense challenges. Among those impacted are several LeadingAge members. These are nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-driven organizations serving older adults. You may know that this podcast is a production of LeadingAge Texas, our national association. LeadingAge is stepping up through its Disaster Relief Fund. This fund is currently accepting donations. All contributions are tax-deductible and 100% of donations go to member organizations and their staff. To learn more and to donate, please visit LeadingAge.org. We've also included the donation link in this episode's show notes. Thank you for joining us in supporting these communities.
Podcast Intro
Amanda: This is Uplift Aging, the podcast that's more than a podcast. This is a challenge to embrace growing older, confront negative stereotypes, and better understand what may come with aging. I'm your host, Amanda Wiedenfeld. Together, let's Uplift Aging.
Meet Darrell Jones
Amanda: Well, I am excited today to have General Darrell Jones with us. He is a member of our Board of Directors at LeadingAge Texas, and he is at Blue Skies of Texas in San Antonio as their President and CEO. So, Darrell, thank you so much for making time today and I'm super excited to chat books with you. Can you tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself and maybe how you got to where you are at Blue Skies?
Darrell: Well, Amanda, first off, it's great to be with you today and thank you for asking me to participate. You know, I love senior living, but how I got here is probably a little different than most people. They probably noticed in the podcast you introduced me with a rank. I served 34 years in the United States Air Force. My father was in the Air Force. I served in the Air Force. My oldest son is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and so, you know, it's sort of in our family. And while I was serving, I was blessed to command Lackland Air Force Base here in San Antonio and my wife was asked to be on what was then called Air Force Village. The board directors at Air Force Village and I would go to parties with her and things and began to meet the people out here. We left San Antonio and continued our career for another 10 or 12 years after that and we retired and decided to relocate to San Antonio. So my wife was asked to be back on what we call the Blue Skies Inc. Board and then I was asked to be on the Air Force Villages Charitable Foundation Board. And so we did that for many years. And then my predecessor decided to retire and leave. Blue skies and 8:30 at night. I got a call from one of my residents who used to be my boss, and I looked down and saw the phone light up at 8:30 at night. I answered and I said, yes, sir, how are you doing? He said, Darrell, I had a meeting today. We decided you're going to apply for this job. I knew what he was talking about and I said, well, sir, I saw the announcement since I'm on one of the boards and. And I said, you know, that's nice of you. I don't know, I may think about it. I may talk to Holly. And he said, I don't want to hear thinking about it. He said, you text me or email me when you put your application in. And I said, general. And he said, Darrell, it's late. Good night. He hung up on me. So that's how I got into senior living. I follow orders really well, but honestly, it was not an unusual transition. When I was in the Air Force, I was blessed. I got to command five different times. I was a wing commander twice, commanded the Air Force District of Washington. So a lot of the same type things you have, which is, you know, communications, housing, medical, all those things play into senior living very nicely. So it seemed like a great fit. The only thing that's different that I joke with my Air Force friends is I said the big difference between being a wing commander and running a senior living facility that's. That was started by a bunch of Air Force guys is now my airmen can talk back.
Amanda: I love that story so much. I think when I hear you tell that story, I just crack up at this phone call that you got. And I feel like you maybe said five words total in that phone call.
Darrell: Exactly, exactly.
Amanda: Thank you for being where you are and following orders.
Impactful Books for Leaders in Aging Services & Beyond
Amanda: So we are talking about books, reads. We are kind of highlighting the importance of reading at all stages of life. But really, I wanted to chat with you today because I know that you're a voracious reader and I so appreciate all of your book recommendations that you've given our leadership Collective class and me throughout the years. That's really great. But I wanted to first ask you, in your role as a leader in aging services and also a lifelong learner, which I know you are, what are some of the most impactful or thought-provoking books that you have read that have influenced your perspective on how you actually lead innovation within your community and what you see for the future of senior living?
Darrell: Well, first off, I do love books. You know, I married a library science major, so I better love books. When I talk to people about senior living, there's really. There's really two categories of books. One are senior living books that are professional. But then I do all sorts of other reading. And I'd like to say that I didn't read a lot as a youngster. You know, usually going through school, I was focused on what I had to read, the required reading. But it was only as I got a little older that I really started reading a lot. And I'll explain why I started doing that. But back to what books to recommend. If you're a professional in senior living, I think you have to start with Being Mortal. Being Mortal is a book by Atul Gwande. He's a surgeon, a prolific writer, and it really talks about how the role of medicine and aging and how it matters, but its limitations. And I think that's important to all of us because, you know, aging has changed. In the old days, we'll call it, you know, people passed away at their house, people aged at their house. Senior living wasn't a thing. And so now there's so many more options. You know, many people today end up in the hospital when they're toward the end of life. And it's a real sterile environment. It's not a happy place. And so I think as senior leaders in aging, we have to understand what we bring in continuing care, retirement communities, how we don't want that option to be going to a hospital where it's sterile and you're with just one or two people, but being where you're loved and where you've spent many, many years and where other people are watching out for you. And that's why I would tell anyone to start with Being Mortal. And then the second book I would tell them to read is the Checklist Manifesto, which obviously is also written by Atul Gwande. And it talks about. Life has gotten so much busier and so much more complicated that sometimes falling back on a simple checklist can keep you focused and can drive a positive outcome. I think I like the book because it opens in the preface, starting about how complicated the B17 bomber was to fly in World War II by creating pilot checklists and stuff. They made it simpler. And a bunch of medical people took that same concept and brought it over to medicine. I think all of us, if you're like me, I like checklists. It's the way my wife gets me to do things. And I think checklists at all phases of life, personal and professional, are probably a good thing. And until Gwande's checklist manifesto really brings home how you can use those, I'll probably give you two more before I stop talking here, because these four I thought about just a minute, wrote down another one is Smarter, Better, Faster by Charles Dewing. It talks about eight different concepts for motivating people and setting goals and making big decisions. And I just found it very, very illustrative. It had some great stories with it. I've shared it with a lot of my friends in senior living and they've really liked it. And so I think that was the litmus test, me adding it to the list. And then finally I'll recommend one other book before we talk some more, and that is Start with why by Simon Sinek. Full disclosure here. Simon's a good friend of mine and. But start with why. I read the book before I met him and it tells us that we have to understand why we do things, not what we do. You know, it's easy to know we're in senior living. You know, if you're focused on what you do, then when someone visits your senior living facility and they're in the sales office, the first thing that you do is take them to a house or take them to an apartment. That's not senior living. We don't exist to provide a house or provide an apartment. We exist to provide a lifestyle. And that's why we're here. And so, you know, you're always encouraging your marketing team to sell them on senior living. And then we got the place to live. You know, that becomes secondary. And so that's why I think start with why is so important. Huge story. One of Simon's sec. I think it was a second book, but one. One of his books was called Leaders Eat Last. And Simon was visiting me when I was in the Air Force station in Washington when Superstorm Sandy hit. And he was stuck at our house for four days and he borrowed my computer to write a couple chapters of his new book. And the whole time he was there, I was thinking, great, I'm going to get to read these chapters before anybody else. And so when he finished, I was up there with him and he said, okay, Darrell, let me take this, I'll delete this. And then I thought, I've got him. It's in the trash can. And then he emptied my trash can. And I was thinking, Simon's smarter than I am. So I did. Did not get to read the books before he published them.
Amanda: I love that story. That's cute. It sounds like he. At that point, he was. He was equipped with some knowledge of what might happen if he. If he didn't empty the trash. That's so funny.
Darrell: Exactly.
Amanda: And how kind of you to let him borrow your computer to give us some chapters. That is great. Thank you for sharing those. I feel like. I feel like those are such good reads for people, you know, in our field, but also for really anyone. Anyone who's excited about or interested in exploring what aging means, because we're all doing it, as I say. And I think that's so important. And of course, start with why we use that in our leadership collective here. And it's just. It's so great, I think, both career-wise and just personal as well, to really get comfortable with what your why is and what your core values are. Thank you for sharing that. And tell Simon we said hi.
Darrell: I'll do that.
Amanda: Well, given your extensive experience in the military and now in aging services, how have books that explore different cultural perspectives or historical narratives or ethical frameworks, how have those helped you better understand the diverse needs of the older adults that you serve in your community?
Darrell: Well, you first. I think you have to understand the importance of books. Harry Truman is credited with saying that not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. You can't be an effective leader in any industry today if you're not reading and keeping up with what's going on currently in the industry. But it's more than that in senior living. You know, our residents are from a different time than us now. I'm a heck of a lot closer to that time than you are, Amanda, but still, even with myself, you know, we're dealing with residents that live through the great that. That live through. We're losing most of Our World War II senior living residents now, but, you know, a year or two ago, was the residents living through World War II, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam. They have been through trying times in our country, economically, politically. And so it's important that we understand that because a lot of us think the history starts the day we came around. When I was in the Air Force one time, I had a young captain in my office, and he was telling me that we were looking at instinct, the number of people we have. And he proudly proclaimed, he said, sir, this is the closest we've ever come to meeting our instinct. And I said. And he said, in the history of the Air Force. And I Said the history of the Air Force. I sort of looked at him. He said, well, seven years since I've been in, right? I had to laugh because his concept was the Air Force had been around seven years because that's all he'd been in. And, you know, that applies to senior living, too. We have a generation, we have a different generation providing services to the greatest generation and those that came after them. And you have to understand them, and you only understand them through reading them. Maybe if you were blessed to have a big connected family, you know, that you would understand seniors that way. But if not, it's reading about some of the challenges, reading about what we did in World War II, the Korean War, reading about, you know, the economic challenges, the civil rights movement, the college campus protests and everything. You know, understanding those, reading the struggles that women went through. You know, I read a book the other day, the Great Stewardess Rebellion, and it was about the evolution of flight attendants. And it was like reading something out of the Handmaid Maiden's Tale from what happened and how they were treated back when they first started. And it became a book, really, about labor relations. By doing that, you learn about other people. Now when I get on an airplane and I look at the flight attendant, male or female, I look at them differently. I think, wow, they've come a long way. They've had a lot of struggle. And so that's why I think reading is so important. And it was the same thing in the military. You know, when I was in the military, I read about military leaders and their conflicts. And I honestly, I still do, because I like that subject, but, you know, and the things that they had to do. But now I read more of the senior living and the challenges, and that's the only way you're going to get smarter. But a lot of the same principles apply. It's being out with your residents. I could fill in the blank with being out with your airmen, in my case, when I was in the Air Force, getting to know them, getting to know the challenges they have so that you can help provide the services they need, or if nothing else, just be an empathetic earth. And so that's why I think that's so important.
Amanda: That's great. Thank you for sharing that. I think it's just the power of storytelling, in whatever form, it's so key to our human experience. That anecdote about the seven years of the history of the Air Force, that is so funny. But that's such a good point. I think it can be easy for people to fall into that, to just only take their own experience and their own setting and just kind of move through life that way. But thank you for sharing that. That importance of reading. And I don't know, not even just hearing the stories of what people before us have gone through, but reading. Right. It's just such a different way. It's almost as if you're able to be a part of that when you're reading those pages,
Darrell: and it allows you to connect with your residents. When I first got here, I was talking to one of our residents one time, and his name was Captain Bingham. Never forget. You know, we're. We don't use RAN all the time, but some of the residents we use rank with. And I remember asking Captain Bingham one time, I said, you know, what did you do in the Air Force? Because captain is a pretty junior grade, and we don't. You know, there's not a lot of captains here. We have colonels and generals and majors and lieutenant colonels. And he said, well, I was only in the Air Force four years. And I said, okay, what'd you do when you got out? He said, well, I went to work at NASA, and this was just one of the residents walking the halls. And I said, so what did you do at NASA? And he said, well, a lot of different things. And I said, what's the biggest thing you did? And he looked me in the eye and very nonchalantly said, I designed the simulator that Neil Armstrong flew before he landed the lunar module on the moon. What? And I. And I looked at him and he goes, I'll bring you the book. And he brings this book by to show me. And literally, you know, if you think about it, and until that moment, I never had. Neil Armstrong never flew the lunar lander until he flew the lunar lander for the first time. And the time it counted, There were no practice rides. There were no simulated runs in space. And so Captain Bingham led a crew of engineers, and they developed this thing that looks like an erector set or a Lego set with little jet engines on it and stuff to simulate. I think it's 1/10 gravity for the moon or whatever percentage it is. And it almost killed him twice. But he says in one of the books that it was the unsung hero of the. Of the. Of the moon missions, landing on the moon. That's the type people that live in senior living. That's why it's so important to read about them and talk to them.
Libraries and Reading Programs in Aging Services
Amanda: Okay, so what role do you think that libraries, bookstores, and just reading programs and maybe some of which you might have at Blue Skies. What role do those play in fostering a love of literature and cultivating a sense of, of community among older adults?
Darrell: Well, you know, I think it allows them to share time together. At Blue Skies, we have a wonderful library. It stretches two or three rooms in our lobby. It just sort of integrated into the, into the walls, but we don't touch it. It's run by our residents. We give it to them to run. They're very proud of it. They have very strict rules about what books they'll take. No old paperbacks, only hardbacks. And they want the COVID on them. And they're very specific, specific and picky about their books because that' their generation, their generation is the library. And I love libraries. As I said, my wife was a library science major and honestly, if it wasn't for libraries, I wouldn't have graduated from college because if I wanted to see my wife, I had to go to the library. And after 20 or 30 minutes, there's not much to do there but study. And so I think that's why I graduated from school, was meeting her and my grades improved significantly. That's the, you know, that's the older model is libraries. Today libraries are so important because they provide not only books, but videos and, and, and learning curriculum for teachers, but also something near and dear to my heart, which is books on Tape. So I'll be honest with you. I have trouble finding time to read if you use read as the, as the traditional definition of sitting down with a book and a cup of coffee. And you know, when that happens, I usually fall asleep because I'm so tired. But I listen to Books on tape nonstop. I got into it many, many years ago. I have a 30 minute commute each way to and from work. Whenever my wife asks me to do something around the house, I say, sure, put my books on tape on and I go take care of or I go take the trash out or whatever. And so I've knocked out hundreds of books since I started this job seven years ago because of the commute. I go on long bike rides, I listen to my books on tape when I'm on trails and things like that. So libraries are important because they are evolving. They're evolving like we are and much more into the media, different medias than they were back then. But you know, it's hard to beat a bookstore. It's hard to beat a little independent bookstore where you go buy your kids books and you can sit around and read and you can let them go over and hang out in the kids or the grandkids and hang out in the kids area while you look for the book you need. So I think there's a place for all of them. The most important thing is you just take advantage of that. You know, if you're the library type that reads a traditional book, go do that. If you're the library type that does books on tapes, go do that. And you know, today you really don't need to. You know, the industry may kill me, but you don't need to spend money to listen to books on tape or to check out library books. These days, you know, there are many, many free apps. I use the Libby app. And you know, if you go down to your local library and sign in, they will probably, I guarantee you they have not a media for you to do. Today I can download thousands and thousands of books. I can download thousands of thousands of audio books, magazines, all that on my iPad, on my phone, listen to them whenever I want, get them for 30 days. If I don't finish them, they. They take them back. And if I check it back out a week or two later, it picks up right back where it left off. So, you know, the technology is there to make reading so important.
Amanda: I love that. I feel like when you were talking about the idea of sitting down with a book with pages, with coffee and all of that, it's just like such a romanticized thing of what it. Of what it could be or what it used to be. But thank you for saying that about books on tape, audio books. That is, I feel like that is how so many more people are consuming stories now. And it just seems, I mean, we're so busy and we're so. We're on the go all the time.
Darrell: We had something interesting the other day and that was, we have a new resident of Blue Skies. They haven't moved in yet, but they came and they looked the place over and we showed them one of the apartments in our high rise and our towers. And they said, yes, I want this apartment. And then they said, is the apartment next door free? And we said, well, not right now, but it will be in a month. And I said, we'll take it. And we said, wait a minute, why do you want two apartments? And I was thinking they wanted to knock a wall out and make it a big apartment. They said, no, no, that'll be our library. Library. Oh, so they're running. They're renting a completely separate apartment next door. No passageway. They'll go out in the hall to get there and they have their own library. That's how many books they have.
Amanda: No way.
Darrell: No, we're very happy with that. That's incredible.
Amanda: Well, sure. Yeah. That's incredible. Wow.
Darrell: Isn't it? That's how dedicated they are to the physical, you know, the hard copy books.
Amanda: Absolutely. And that's great too about the residents with the library that you guys. Right. With not having paperbacks allowed anything that they're intense. That seems. Wow. Are the staff able to check books out of it or
Darrell: Yes, the staff can check books. Can also check books out.
Amanda: Okay. Okay. But y'all can contribute or.
Darrell: That's right. All of the. Yeah, yeah, I, I've taken a number of books to them, but they have. Not only. They not only have traditional books, they have large print books, they have audio books, they have videos and DVDs from music. So it's a. It's very similar to a local library.
Technology and Accessibility in Reading
Amanda: Absolutely. That's great. I love that too, that they have some of the large print books as well.
That kind of goes into my next question about just. Well, and I think, you know, you kind of answered that with the previous question too, but just with how much and how quickly things change in terms of technology. Obviously you touched on audiobooks, but I think too just like the digital versions as well. Like you were saying, with the Libby app, you can download however many to your Kindle or E reader or whatnot. But I was just thinking when you mentioned the large print books, like the ease of being able to increase the size of the words on a Kindle, just. I don't know, just things like that.
Darrell: Exactly. Even the readers that we have today, where you could get a big 34 inch screen and buy an inexpensive reader to use a traditional book to, you know, to video that put it up on the screen. So even people that are suffering from age related macular degeneration or things like that or loss of vision, they can still keep with their passion because, you know, you don't want to start losing your connection to the outside world. You really don't. Even if it's a little harder, even if you read a lot slower, you still want to keep that connection. And boy, books will take you everywhere. You can travel all over the world in any time, any place, and it's a pretty wonderful thing.
Sharing Knowledge among Leaders
Amanda: So as a board member of LeadingAge Texas, you talked earlier, I think, about some of the book recommendations that you'd given to some of your colleagues in Aging services. But has that flip flopped? Have any of your colleagues given you book recommendations that you were introduced to that really have helped you develop maybe new ideas or best practices as you've come into the field after being in the military?
Darrell: Well, I believe it was one of my fellow CEOs who gave me, started me with Atul Gwande, who I'd never heard of before with being mortal. So they were instrumental in giving me that. We often, we all share articles together, you know, best practices we've learned, which is really important because one of the things that if you're not familiar with senior living that is really unique to the field is even though we're sort of competitors, the amount of sharing that goes on is unbelievable. And it goes back to we understand why we exist. We don't exist to turn a profit, although we all want to be profitable. We exist to help seniors at this wonderful stage of life. And so you do that by sharing best practices with your friends and with your associates and getting them as excited about books as you are. I had a fellow CEO call me a couple months ago and I called her on something else and she answered the phone and said, life changed. And I stopped there. I said, what? She said, life changing. And I said, what's life changing? She said, I got the app you were talking about. I get all these free books. And I listened to them to and from work now, which I never did. And she said, I'm reading more books than ever read in my life. So that made me really happy.
Amanda: That is so great. And I agree. The, the amount of sharing and true, true knowledge of the why, especially within the not for profit senior living world, it is, it's so beautiful to be able to see just the sharing that happen. And I mean, it even goes into just, I don't know, when you're visiting another community, seeing a program and then being like, okay, well, we're just going to bring that program on over to where we are. I don't know, just sharing ideas and actionables all the time. It's so great to see. And I think you're right. It's because of the why. Everyone's comfortable with their why.
Changing Perceptions of Aging
Amanda: All right, Darrell, I have one last question for you. Can you tell us an example of something that happened in your life that has had an impact that changed your perception on what it means to age?
Darrell: My parents passed away when I was young, so I didn't have that model of aging for my parents. But I've seen my wife's parents age and, and, you know, we all want to make sure that we're taken care of or that they're taken care of in, in as we get to that point in our lives. I guess the biggest impact I've had on that's had on me on aging and how I look at it and what success look is. One story was that as soon as I took this job, I was running around, walking all over the campus, stopping in, and I stopped in our memory care unit. This was the first week I was in the job. And I walked back in one of the households and I went over to pour a cup of coffee. And a woman walks up and she looks up at me and says, that smells great. And I looked over and I said, can I pour you a cup? And we wear name tags here so that we can recognize residents and they can recognize each other. And she didn't have a name tag on, so I couldn't put her in the right category. And she was sort of young looking and, and, you know, very well put together. And so I didn't know if she worked there or she was a relative or what. And I said, so what are you doing here? And she says, I live here. And I said, okay. So now I'm beginning to, you know, say, okay, this is one of our residents. And I said, well, how long have you lived here? We sat down together to have a cup of coffee. And she told me, you know, I've been here about six months. And I said, okay, that's great. And I said, do you like it? She said, oh, I love it. She said, it's wonderful. And she teared up a little bit and said, I just hope I can stay. And I said, well, you know, we're a not for profit company, like many others in the industry. And I said, you know, if you run out of money through no fault of your own, you don't have to worry about that. We pick up your bills, which is one of the great secrets of senior living, and we'll help take care of you for the rest of your life. And so that made her happy. And then she said, you know, I just love it here. The people are so nice. The staff is so wonderful. That's my husband over, over there. It's just been great. As I listened all that, it was, you know, I felt really wonderful. And I'm leaving and I stopped by the office and I said, hey, I met, you know, so and so out there and pointed to her and I said, you know, she's been here about six months and they looked at me and said, no, she's been here for many years. Well, okay. Well, I met her husband. No, her husband passed away two years ago. And I went to walk back to my office. And as I'm walking back across campus to my office, office, I literally thought to myself, I don't know if I can do this job. I said, oh, my gosh, that, that, that was, that was upsetting. And then as I kept walking and think about it, I said, wait a minute. She's happy, she's safe, she loves where she lives. She loves the people around her. She loves her friends. I said, I'm looking at this all wrong. What a wonderful place to be. And so it really, that really changed my life, how I viewed senior living and Blue Skies in particular, and having watched family members struggle with aging parents and things like that. And I see what we provide in senior living, not just Blue Skies of Texas, but all of our, of our associates in the industry and stuff. When I, when I see what we provide for aging and how well we take care of people, it just makes me think, why wouldn't we all be here? And in fact, I put my deposit down to live at Blue Skies of Texas five years ago, and my brother, one of my two brothers that are remaining, put his deposit down a year year ago. So, you know, that's how much we believe in senior living because as our residents like to say, we want our children to care about us, not for us. And I think that's one of the biggest gifts you can provide to your family is somebody to care for you so they can care about you.
Conclusion
Amanda: Well, I think that is a great place to wrap up. Oh, that was a beautiful, beautiful story. Well, thank you, Darrell, and thank you to all that you do for LeadingAge Texas and for, of course, Blue Skies as current CEO and future resident. We so appreciate you and thank you again for taking the time to chat about books with me.
Darrell: Amanda, thank you and all the wonderful people at LeadingAge Texas and all that you do for everyone in the industry.
Outro
Amanda: Thanks for tuning in to Uplift Aging, a production of LeadingAge Texas. Check out this episode's show notes for more about LeadingAge Texas, today's guest, and the uplift aging movement. Until next time, join us on socials at Uplift Aging as we continue to elevate the conversation on aging.
