New Horizons PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
October 2024 | Vol. 49 | No. 10
After sampling writing genres, Omaha creative finds true calling as playwright K
By Leo Adam Biga im Louise Whiteside owns diverse writing credits that seemingly belong to several wordsmiths rather than her alone. The Omaha native is a published poet and romance novelist. Her African-American themed novels include several Amazon best-sellers. Playwright is how she mostly identifies today. An article she wrote for Writer’s Digest fulfilled a Bucket List goal. Yet since the 1980s she’s made her living far outside penning dramatic works or magazine pieces as an adult education curriculum writer. A writer’s life emerged early on growing up in her family’s North Omaha household where she and her late parents shared a “voracious” appetite for reading. Her folks migrated separately to Nebraska from Kansas and met working at Omaha’s VA Hospital. Her father was a cook. Her mother was a laundress. Kim fondly recalls her father taking her to get her first library card and the magic of checking out mate-
rials from the public library, school library and bookmobile. For Christmas and birthdays she got books. She kept her prized books on a coffee-table at her childhood home. She inherited the table and still uses it to display her literary treasures. Dad read every Omaha WorldHerald daily local edition. Mom binged on romance novels. With household subscriptions to Ebony and Jet magazines, Kim was ex-
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posed to their adult editorial content. She later subscribed to Essence. Recognizing her prodigious interest in reading and writing, her folks purchased her book series. Books on great Black leaders, achievers and thinkers made an impression. She kept a diary for a time. In addition to encouragement at home, poems she crafted in junior high earned accolades and admir-
ers at a time when the teen needed validation among her peers. One was featured in a Great Plains Black History Museum exhibition. “It was something people really appreciated. I connected with people in a way I didn’t even know I could. To be able to connect like that and be accepted, I thought, okay, I know what I can do, and I have been writing ever since.” A classroom project foreshadowed her future path. “I distinctly remember being in fourth grade and doing a group project. My group decided to put on a play. We were divvying up who was going to do what and I said. ‘I’ll write it if you guys want to act in it.’ As a card-carrying introvert I didn’t want to speak on stage. I remember writing it and thinking how great it was I wrote these words and people were saying them.” FAMILY OF STORYTELLERS She attributes her facility for spinning yarns to the tall tales her --Louise continued on page 9.
Financial relief is on its way for local caregivers By Andy Bradley Contributing Writer ebraskans who spend their own money helping care for an older or disabled relative will soon be eligible to recoup some of those expenses. Thanks to the new Nebraska Caregiver Tax Credit, created by the Unicameral last spring, caregivers can receive up to $2,000 in state income tax credits as partial reimbursement for their documented expenses. For example, if a taxpayer owes $2,000 in state income taxes, they may receive up to $2,000 in the form of a credit against those taxes. The credit is $3,000 for those caring for a veteran or person with dementia living in a non-institutional setting. Several important qualifiers: • The credit is for 50 percent of eligible realized expenses, and the caregiver must be prepared to show proof of those expenses. • The legislature authorized only $1.5 million in credits per year,
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although that number rises to $2.5 million after two years. The credits are available on a first come (applied) basis. • The caregiver must have an adjusted federal gross income of less than $50,000 a year, $100,000 for joint filers. • The credit is not available until January 1, 2026. That gives participants one year, starting January 1, 2025, to collect receipts for eligible out-of-pocket expenses. Examples include paying for housekeeping, personal care attendants, health care equipment, or home modifications, including accessibility upgrades, among others. • The person receiving care must require help with two or more activities of daily living, including, among others, feeding, dressing, bathing/grooming, and mobility; and that care must be delivered in a private residence. • The applicant must be paying --Relief continued on page 5.