When Betty Jo Feldhaus learned that the Rosary Team was scouting for volunteers, she gladly signed up. She was already well-versed with a local Rosary Team accompanying memory care patients at Juniper Village in Louisville, Colorado. The Rosary Team had been there for her husband Jerry during his residency from 2019 to 2020, when he passed.
Currently 85, she now volunteers for that very prayer group. She’s a “SuperAger” in my book.
Cerith Gardener from Aleteia cites a Northwestern University study discussing the term SuperAgers, referring to senior citizens 80+ years old who stand out from the pack due to their incredible memories. In fact, they “have the memory capacity of individuals who are at least three decades younger,” states the Mesulam Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.
What could give SuperAgers their superpowers? “Despite having diverse lifestyles and varying approaches to exercise, SuperAgers tend to be highly social and report strong interpersonal relationships,” noted Kristin Samuelson of Northwestern Now.
As she spends time with Alzheimer’s patients, Betty Jo Feldhaus is moved by how they can follow along with the Rosary.
“Way back in the 50s, you said the rosary every night as a kid in the home with your family,” she said in an interview with Catholic Exchange. “These [patients] say the Hail Marys with us and the Our Father. They remember those prayers. They don’t remember what they did two minutes ago, but those prayers come back to them.”
Carol Konetzke from San Antonio, Texas, is also a fan of volunteering, although her community service is different from Feldhaus’. At 65, Konetzke is still a long way off from the SuperAgers’ 80+ threshold, but she and her husband Steve are setting themselves up to become future SuperAgers through their active volunteering during retirement.
Steve participates in woodworking-related projects like Habitat for Humanity and Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Additionally, the couple relocates to Wisconsin for five months every year to allow Carol to pursue her “passion”: helping out at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.
Our Lady of Champion is the only approved Marian apparition in the U.S. Carol first set foot in the shrine in 2016, and her time spent there was better than she could have dreamed.
“In October [2016], after my mom’s funeral, I went to the shrine,” she recalled in an interview with Catholic Exchange. “I was full of grief, of course, but I just felt a really strong attachment and a tremendous sense of peace.”
After some more pilgrimages, she eventually began volunteering in 2020, including assisting in the cafeteria and gift shop. To her, it’s a blessing to be able to make others feel welcome within her happy place, bonding with pilgrims from the U.S. and international locations.
“In addition to whatever your duties are, I think our role is to listen—to listen to these pilgrims and their stories, and why they came in search of Mary.” She added, “I’m definitely more joyful when I’m at the shrine. I just can’t take the smile off my face, I’m so happy to be there all the time.”
As Feldhaus put it regarding her own volunteering with the memory care patients, she’s content “if I can put a smile on their face.”
Carol urges retirees, “Volunteer, whether it’s with your church, community, hospital, or whatever. Try to give back, because what I think what you will ‘get’ in return is invaluable. I don’t think you can calculate it or put a cost on it.”
For Feldhaus, Carol, and Steve, reaching out to others through faith-based volunteering is just part of who they are. Ultimately, they don’t do it to become SuperAgers—they do it because community service is part of who they are as Catholics.
Photo Credit: Mike Jensen
