COURSEY • HARRELLS F E R R Y • PA R K V I E W • MILLERVILLE •
OLD JEFFERSON • SHENANDOAH • TIGER BEND • WHITE OAK
THE SOUTHEAST
ADVOCATE T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, Au g u s t 20, 2025
Legacy in motion
inspiring. The big takeaway: For many, purpose and passion don’t fade. They expand. The honorees are launching new projects, creating art, building things, mentoring others and teaching important skills. These people continue to take on fresh challenges, proving that second and third acts can be just as rich and rewarding as the first. In short, they continue to show up. The ENCORE Awards aim to shine a light on those who defy outdated ideas of aging — and in doing so, lift up the rest of us. These seven are reminders that curiosity doesn’t retire, and service doesn’t have an expiration date. Each honoree will be profiled in Louisiana Inspired this week and next, with stories that explore the work they’ve done and the lives they continue to touch.
LONG STORY SHORT
The 2025 ENCORE Award winners are:
with Zoom meetings, phone calls and early morning exercise. She continues to be, by all accounts, a force to be reckoned with. In her quest to help people positively age, she has done the same. She says that the key to aging well is to “do it with a positive attitude, knowing that there’s hope and possibility in every day.” She
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‘Powerful, positive practice’ 2025 ENCORE WINNER 90-year-old Louisiana life coach inspires others 12 people. The approach is based on the
Staff writer
7-year cycle theory, which suggests that significant life changes tend to occur in seven-year intervals. Participants leave the program with a written statement that illuminates the significance of their lives. “People go away with a story that tells what their great strengths and qualities are — and also what contributions they have made to the world,” Fleischman said. Susan Burge, who nominated Fleischman for the Louisiana Inspired Encore Awards, wrote that Fleischman’s No. 1 goal is to help others become optimistic. “She often asks, ‘What if everyone in the world operated out of what is good in their lives?,’ ” Burge wrote. “Certainly, for anyone of any age, being impacted by major change(s) and adjusting to new living circumstances of any kind, recalling the ‘best of times’ and living out of positivity, which is the core of Carol’s program, has proven to be a powerful, positive practice.”
Carol Fleischman did it big for her 90th birthday. As she should. She requested a global theme, from food down to decor, with the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band as entertainment at the Deutsches Haus in New Orleans. Her friends and family followed tradition and brought pies for the celebration. Pies have been Fleischman’s go-to for her children’s birthday parties since she never liked making cakes. “I did my 90th birthday in grand style,” Fleischman said, “and people said, ‘Oh, well, invite us to the 100th.’ And I said, ‘No, it’s one year at a time and one day at a time.’ I did not plan to have any more big celebrations. I think we did it well enough.” While the nonagenarian aptly celebrated her birthday, she’s mostly used to celebrating other people’s lives as a certified life coach who helps individuals positively recall and live their lives. More than 200 people have participated From Wisconsin to New Orleans in her Cycles of Life Legacy program, At 90, Fleischman is sharp as a tack. which includes a five-step process of Her voice is warm and light — much like recalling and recording life memories her family’s favorite raspberry apple in seven-year cycles in groups of 6 to pie. Her weekly schedule is consumed
Rules for better conversation Not long ago, I was reminded of an old episode of “This American Life” — one I’ve returned to more than once since it originally aired in 2013. In it, Sarah Koenig, the episode’s producer, shares her mother’s “seven rules of conversation.” Her mother, Maria Matthiessen, admittedly broke her own rules on occasion and was generally forgiving with others, but she reminded her family of the rules on a regular basis. Matthiessen didn’t invent the list. She learned the rules from a French friend, which, in Louisiana, makes the list feel even more official. The reasoning behind the rules of conversation, according to Matthiessen, is that, “Nobody cares” about these specific topics. The topics aren’t what you might expect — not politics, religion, or death. Instead, they’re the everyday things many of us bring up without thinking. To each one, Matthiessen has the same reply: “Nobody cares.” How you slept? Your dreams? Your money? Your diet? Your health? “Nobody cares,” says Matthiessen. According to the episode, Matthiessen takes the list seriously and added two items to the original list — health and route talk (explaining which roads one took to get somewhere and that someone cut him off on the exit or that such and such road was closed, etc.). Clearly, I loved the episode — 12 years later, I’m still talking, thinking, and writing about it, partly because the idea of a mother admitting she didn’t care about something felt so revolutionary to me. Certainly, I could not imagine my mother saying any of this. At one point, her daughter asks, “Wait, when I call you and I’m sick, are you saying you don’t care?” Her mother explains that if she’s seriously ill, of course, she cares, but minor aches and pains? Not so much. My own mother, to this day, hangs on every word her children say. I do not take this kind of love and listening for granted. Even with our children now young adults, I still find myself striving to be more like her. But every now and then, Matthiessen breaks into my brain — especially when route talk starts, her No. 1 conversational no-no. Even Robert Redford — yes, that Robert Redford — wasn’t exempt. In the episode, Koenig and Matthiessen review the list and even tell about the time Robert Redford drove to their home for a visit. Shortly after his arrival, he did the unthinkable. He told them about his drive to Long Island from Manhattan. He got lost. He got a ticket. Someone recognized him. Matthiessen said the drive takes two hours and that Redford practically took two hours to tell the story. “Was he dead to you after that?” Koenig asked. “Pretty much,” her mother replied. Perhaps this old radio episode has remained top of mind because our family has had a chronic route talk violator. Now that our children live in different states and time zones, we often catch up on the phone during commutes. With one particular family member, we often get a detailed, playby-play account of her drive home. Thanks to Matthiessen’s rules, gentle route talk reminders have given us a way to steer the conversation toward other topics — or ask if she needs to focus fully on
n Carol Fleischman, New Orleans n Eldridge (Butch) Gendron, St. Amant n Sally Hebert, Lafayette n Sal LaRock, New Orleans n Judge Calvin Johnson, New Orleans n Lois Kuyper-Rushing, Baton Rouge n Shelley Thomas, New Orleans
Carol Fleischman, from left, and her children Joan Fleischman, Steve Fleischman and Laurie Kramer gather at Carol’s 90th birthday party in New Orleans on June 22.
BY LAUREN CHERAMIE
1GN
Jan Risher
Encore Awards honor seven Louisianans who prove purpose doesn’t retire
For the inaugural Louisiana Inspired ENCORE Awards, seven Louisianans over the age of 60 are being honored for their continued leadership, service to others, innovativeness and the ways they inspire young and old. Over the summer, readers across the state submitted nominations, highlighting neighbors, friends, family and mentors who hadn’t slowed down — people still doing meaningful work, still learning, still giving. A review panel considered each nominee using a rubric focused on community impact, innovation and service. The result? Seven individuals whose lives remind us that growing older doesn’t mean stepping back. Narrowing the field of nominees to seven was a challenge. In the newsroom, the exercise of learning so much about so many was
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Carol Fleischman, left, a Louisiana life coach, and Susan Burge, who nominated Fleischman for the Louisiana Inspired Encore Awards