Evelyn Hannon: far from retiring

She was a pioneer in publishing on the Internet and writing advice for women travelers and, now in her mid-60s, retiring is the farthest thing from her mind.

Evelyn Hannon says she's believed in reinventing herself every seven to ten years and her self-employed work as a travel journalist is Career Number Six.

"It began because of my interest in travel and then I began to see that women definitely had different needs than men do when they travel," she explains. Her website (www.journeywoman.com) went online in 1997.

Evelyn started her working life as a primary school teacher and then operated her own children's summer camp before tackling adult education and leisure activities for the 50+ generation. In the 1980s, Evelyn found herself at McGill University, Oxford and the Sorbonne where she studied communications, majoring in film and television.

The next phase of her life was spent researching for documentaries at the National Film Board and as production assistant in Canada, the U.S. and abroad. Since then, she has worked as consultant for the federal government and the travel industry. She's appeared on American network television and been featured in major international publications ranging from People Magazine and Reader's Digest to The New York Times and the South China Morning Post. TIME listed her as 'one of this century's most innovative thinkers'.

"I was really one of the world's pioneers in saying we have to cater to women needs," she says. "Now everybody's doing it."

Women have different health, safety and security needs when they're traveling, she explains, especially when traveling abroad. An advice book for women travelers she wrote for Foreign Affairs Canada in 1994 has been reprinted every year since and is available in passport offices.

On top of all that, in early May she was one of 6,500 who ran a 10kilometre marathon along Yonge Street in Toronto.

"I'm so proud of myself," she says. (Her daughter, broadcaster Erika Ehm, finished only 11 minutes before her.)

Evelyn acknowledges that 65 is "a great place to be" and has absolutely no plans to stop working. "Writing is the kind of thing you can do forever," she points out. "The kinds of stories I write change as I progress. When I go to Disney, I now write from the grandmother's point of view. I understand the Internet and I see no reason I can't continue."

Sue Singer, Vancouver BC writes

As busy as you are, I wanted to email you to congratulate you on Prime50. I too am over 50 and did not begin my business, Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, until my late 40s. We employ several Chef Instructors over 50 who have had extremely successful careers in the hotel industry and now wish to 'give back' by teaching and sharing their extensive knowledge with our students. I am sure there is a market for Prime50 in Vancouver as well. Good Luck-your website bursts with professionalism-you are definitely onto something 'big'.

(Sue Singer is the President and Founder of the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts)

D.Wright, Halifax NS, writes

I am glad that that there is now some recognition of the fact that seniors need and want to work; and that there is a need to educate employers that those of us who have been in the workplace for many years still have a lot to offer in the workplace. Even the province of Nova Scotia recognizes the fact that older people are having problems getting meaningful work and this year has funded the 'Older Workers Initiative' through Job junction and People Plus to help us. I applaud (Prime50) for your efforts to bring attention to this problem we older workers are experiencing.

Judy Molyneaux, Pickering ON, writes

I have spent many years in the Corporate Travel environment as an Operations and Account Manager and had the opportunity to change my life path. I have just completed a course with the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.

I have spent weeks trying to find the right job and came across your organization. Your philosophy and research on the importance of the 50+ employees in the workplace and the overwhelming value they bring to any job is refreshing and uplifting. I just turned "50" this past February and have never had more energy or been more committed to making a real difference in the workplace.

I have already mentioned to a few of my friends that your company exists and have no doubt that you will grow very fast as more 'baby boomers' want to relocated and find new and rewarding jobs. I am one of many.

Claudette Hart: who could ask for more?

Claudette Hart is 64 and an artist. And for someone who never picked up a paintbrush till she was 40, she's less amazed at being an artist than she is at being 64.

"I don't think you're really old until you think you are," Hart says. "I'm always surprised when I realize that I'm 64."

The path from Iroquois Falls in northern Ontario to her log home/studio in Merrickville, just an hour outside of Ottawa, was a circuitous one, to say the least. She started out teaching English as a second language to adults at universities and colleges in Canada and the United States. Then she went back to university, got her Bachelor of Education and taught at a rural elementary school in eastern Ontario for 12 years. She admits she "never dared try" her hand in the arts until she hit the magic age of 40.

"I think my life started again at 40," Hart says. "I became more daring and more eager to try new things." One of the new things she tried was watercolors. Her courage was slow to follow.

"I would look over my shoulder to be sure no one was looking…then I kept doing it…every single day" she explains. "I always felt if I didn't do it every single day, I'd forget how." Even though she admits that it was a force bigger than she.

"I always felt like I was God because I could put a tree here," laughs Hart. "It was really exciting. I just loved watercolors."

The experience led her to take up pottery in her late 40s, and then her path took another turn…to gourds. Hart had read an article about a woman who worked with gourds and suddenly it all became clear. She was "really, really" attracted by the organic quality of the object that it came from the earth, that it didn't hold the limitations of pottery. "I realized then, in a trice, that this was what I always wanted to do but didn't know it," Hart explained. "It was just a revelation."

By the time the gourds were ready in the spring of 2001, she was ready too-to transform, through designs and stains, the humble hardshell fruits into works of art. Her wonderful, inspired, one-of-akind gourds didn't start flying off the shelves until she appeared on TV. And when the "word got around that Claudette was doing this crazy new thing, more and more people came."

It's this craziness, this passion, that keeps her going and that she puts into everything she does. Like the clothes she made for her children when they were young, when she would "go and buy these funky fabrics." Even today, Hart says, "They still talk about the great t-shirts that I used to make them and the clothes with the crazy colours."

She was simply as passionate about those clothes as she was about teaching, watercolors, pottery, and now is about her gourds. So what does her future hold?

"My history tells me that it's very possible that one day I will find another passion," says Hart. In the meantime, she's literally out of her gourd about gourds.