The Sages of Oak Place - Paperback

by Carolyn Stegman (Author)

At first glance, Oak Place might be just another senior living complex where older persons shuffle around waiting for the final curtain call. However, CEO Katherine Eich, has defied stereotypes and reframed aging, creating a community where elders can live fully in an atmosphere that values their often unsung, yet extraordinary lives.

One new resident is Stella Cordrey, an eighty-three-year-old sage who looks like a Norman Rockwell grandmother. She's actually a retired prostitute who hooked up with a United Nations Special Envoy. Together they risked their lives to smuggle millions of dollars of diamonds out of 1980s South Africa. Her secret would have gone to the grave with her had the FBI not shown up at Oak Place to investigate their scheme, exposing a story of love, a lost child, murder, and their efforts to end apartheid.
Stella's unfolding autobiography is not the only one hidden within the minds of Oak Place residents. Katherine invokes all residents to share their stories: histories worthy of being told, not buried with them. And, sages don't just live at Oak Place-like Katherine, they also work there. Dr. Jeff Titus, keeps Oak Place filled with music, and Shirlee Jonas teaches a course on aging and sex, which includes solo sex.
The Sages of Oak Place is about aging and those who have rejected a trajectory toward death that is boring and lonely.