Active Lifestyle Keeps Dearborn Heights Senior Young At Heart

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MI — Dearborn Heights resident Roxanne Thorpe is living proof that you’re never too old to try something new. Take ballroom dancing. When most people are starting to slow down a little in middle age, she kicked into high gear and won dance competitions across Michigan and Ohio.

Now 92, Thorpe still moves at a remarkable pace. Whether it’s playing with her great grandchildren, or just a trip to the local supermarket, she doesn’t have time to waste. Then, again, she never did. Thorpe ventured from France to Michigan as a war bride in the 1940s, and then went to work at Awrey bakery for 30 years. When she wasn’t working, she was tending to her immaculate yard and garden in Dearborn Heights.

“In a few days, Michigan will lose to Ohio,” said Therese Maggioncalda, geriatric care manager with Senior Care Solutions, which is affiliated with Beaumont Health. “Roxanne is moving to a retirement community in Ohio to be closer to her son in Columbus and daughter in Tennessee. Ohio is gaining a gem.”

Thorpe was referred to Senior Care Solutions a few months ago by her doctor, a geriatrician, who recognized that his patient might need some assistance and would benefit from SCS’s “peace of mind” program, which provides regular calls and visits to seniors to ensure they are living safely at home.

With the exception of a younger brother, who also moved to Michigan from France, Thorpe’s family all live out of state. With help from SCS, Thorpe’s children could be assured that their mom’s medications were set up correctly, a personal emergency system was installed and that there was someone to accompany her to doctor appointments and take her grocery shopping.

“When I took Roxanne to Kroger’s, I could hardly keep up, because she walks so fast,” said Maggioncalda, who speculated this may have explained one of two falls Thorpe had in December. The falls also prompted Thorpe’s children to encourage their mom to move closer to them.

With continued help from SCS and the family’s trips to Michigan to help Thorpe pack up more than 60 years of memories, she has spent lots of time reminiscing. Born and raised in Vienne, France on the Rhone River, Thorpe was a young woman when Americans liberated her town from the Germans during World War II. She was soon discovered by a young American soldier named Jack Stepanian. He couldn’t speak French, and she couldn’t speak English, but that didn’t stop him from proposing and marrying her in France before he was sent on another assignment.

According to Thorpe, it was Jack’s sister in the U.S. who arranged for her to get a passport and passage on a ship that sailed from the French Riviera to New York. Before the war, her husband had boarded with an Italian family in Dearborn, so they took her in. “They were so good to me,” recalled Thorpe, who attended school to learn English while her husband worked for the post office.

When the couple learned they were expecting a child, she insisted they find their own house to raise their family. Another Italian friend directed them to property near Warren Avenue that had been farmland and was being developed for new homes.

Living in the same house for more than 60 years, Thorpe has accumulated personal treasures and mementos that are now carefully packed for the move to Ohio. She is not one to reflect on difficult times that included the death of her first husband who was killed in a car accident when their daughter was only eight years old, or a later marriage that ended in divorce yet gave her a devoted son.

Instead, she remembers learning to ballroom dance after her children were grown and winning trophies in dance competitions throughout Michigan and Ohio. Although her dancing days were unexpectedly ended by a pedestrian accident, nothing has slowed her down. Thorpe doesn’t expect to be sitting much after she moves. She said, “I like to keep moving.”

“Getting to know Roxanne is like watching a Quickstep,” said Maggioncalda. “She’s lighthearted and fun. We’re going to miss her.”

Senior Care Solutions offers geriatric care assessments and case management services along with in home, non-medical and personal care services for seniors and post trauma patients. Located in Allen Park, Mich., SCS provides services throughout the five county areas of Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne. Personal care services are also available within a 30 mile radius of Detroit. For more information, call 866-776-1869 or visit www.OakwoodSeniorSolutions.org.

Photo courtesy Senior Care Solutions