Diane Bick’s key to health is the combination of nature outside her door and sociable exercise. This winter, she’s living at her family cabin in Lake Nebagamon, WI, three and a half hours north of the Twin Cities. She notes that Siri pronounces Nebagamon, “No bag of men.”
Her view is a 1000-acre lake and she says, “It’s better for me to look out at a lake than stay in the city, looking at apartment buildings.”
Though she’s lived in the Twin Cities metro area for five decades, Diane is not really a city person. She grew up in Galesburg, IL, surrounded more by cornfields than concrete.
Since Carleton she’s had two long-term relationships, raised three daughters, and been “a butterfly” in her career, spending time in not-for-profit, for-profit, and government jobs.
Though she enjoys time to read a lot and listen to podcasts, her social life is a big part of her wellbeing. “At 70, parts of your body are in decline. I got hearing aids so I could hear the high-pitched voices of my grandkids. And I know the relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline.”
Diane is an organizer. When Covid shut down her swim exercise group in Richfield, she started twice weekly dance sessions for the same people using Spotify. It’s a fun way to bring together people with different fitness levels. Up North, she plays golf in a league where she is “the most improved in the worst flight.” She also gardens with a neighbor, finding exercise and good conversation as they “plant, weed, and water.” One of her book clubs arose from a Carleton Study Abroad program in France with Carl and Ruth Weiner. The group includes ’72 classmates Nancy Dixon and Jane Dillinger Bannor, with Jane’s husband Lee, among others. Their first book choice was Camus’ The Plague, which Diane read in French, and then checked her understanding in English. Siri might seem to disparage her town’s name, but Diane points out, “I am in a book club with men.”