Did you know Older Americans Month is celebrated in May?
HISTORY
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy and members of the National Council of Senior Citizens met and decided to designate May as Senior Citizens Month to to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of past and current older persons.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Older Americans Act in 1965, the Senior Citizens Month became known as Older Americans Month. Its purpose shifted to highlighting the need for services and community support for older Americans. The Administration for Community Living promotes the annual observance.
HOW I AM CELEBRATING OLDER AMERICANS MONTH
This year, my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke and I are celebrating Older Americans Month by encouraging folks who are over 60 to share and document their life stories and lessons learned with their family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, community, fellow club/church/group/service organization members, and/or online network in small, medium, and big ways.
During the discussion, we shared why Hagerstown is important to our Leak/Leek family history in America. In the early 1840s, Peter and Catherine Leak/Leek and their 14 children escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad and traveled approximately 410 miles to freedom in Amherstburg, Canada. Leonard Leak/Leek, my father’s great-grandfather was one of Peter and Catherine’s sons. Read his obituary below.
My dad also shared life stories that highlighted the importance of his lesson #2: Relationships are essential to your development and the impact you make on the world. His sharing sparked a discussion lively discussion among audience members.
FYI Chapter 22 in American Change Agent is entitled “A Legacy Gift for You: Lessons Learned.” It contains his top 10 lessons.
Many thanks to Dr. Genie Massey and the Maryland League of Women Voters for organizing the event.
Special thanks to Melissa and Bryan Noel, owners of Next Chapter Cafe’ & Book Shop, and their amazing team for hosting the event.
A deep bow of gratitude to my brother Matt for taking photos and recording videos during the book discussion.
MY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO SHARE & DOCUMENT YOUR LIFE STORIES & LESSONS LEARNED
1) Reflect and journal about the top one to three lessons you learned during your teen years, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s in your personal life, relationships, career, health, or finances. Look for any themes of resilience, intentional living, practicing gratitude, setting boundaries, asking for help, overcoming doubt and fear, or embracing change and joy.
2) Share what you have written with your chosen network of folks who would benefit from your lessons learned in a conversation, letter, email, blog, social media post, artwork, video, audio recording. and in-person or online gathering.
3) Consider turning your life stories and lessons learned into a Word or pdf document and/or an e-book with photos.
DAFFODIL is the prompt for Februllage Day #15. My collage is entitled “A Tribute to Daffodil Sisters: Mary Etter Bolden and Stella Essa Bolden.” It honors my great-great-grandaunts, Mary and Stella Bolden, the daughters of my great-great-great-grandparents, Sarah Ellen Martin Bolden and John Thomas Bolden Sr. and Sarah Ellen Martin Bolden. They were the younger sisters of my great-great-grandfather, William Henry Bolden.
I decided to honor my great-great-grandaunts Mary and Stella because they both died early in life. Mary was born on June 14, 1877, in Jefferson County, Indiana (estimating the county based on where her family was living at the time of her birth) and died on April 9, 1898, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). She was only 20 years old.
Stella was born on December 14, 1879, in Jefferson County, Indiana (estimating the county based on where her family was living at the time of her birth) and died on June 28, 1899, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). She was only 19 years old.
While designing this collage, I did some research on the meaning of daffodils and learned they symbolize rebirth, new beginnings, joy, and cheerfulness.
When I looked at Mary and Stella’s black and white photo, I imagined they were young women filled with joy, dreams, and hopes for their future. Perhaps, they were very active in their church community and were able to read and write, teach Sunday school, and help organize outreach efforts and social events. I also imagined they loved flowers like daffodils which were known to grow during the spring months in their hometown of North Vernon, Indiana. Maybe they loved to pick them and place them in vases in their home. My imagination also had me visualizing their parents, sisters, and brothers bringing daffodils to their graves during the spring season.
I wanted to create a heavenly background with daffodils to illustrate Mary and Stella’s rebirth as loving + wise + well ancestors. Thanks to Canva’s AI-generated tool, I was able to create the perfect one.
Yesterday, I discovered that making digital collages dedicated to my loving + wise + well ancestors is a powerful way to care for myself when I experience grief that is born out of the loss of a loved one.
Making ancestral collages is a form of ancestral medicine because it helps you remember your ancestors and express love and gratitude for them.
I had a lot of fun thinking about OBLIVIOUS, today’s #Februllage prompt.
My creative process started with a visit to the internet’s dictionary universe.
After reading several definitions, I made a mental note of the synonyms that resonated. Two words claimed space in my mind: unaware and clueless.
I wondered about the times in my life when I have been unaware or clueless.
I also started looking at family photos and found one of my mom Theresa and three brothers, Mike, Mark, and Matt. It was taken by my father John in 1969.
As I looked at the photo, I realized my little girl self called Puf (“Puf the Magic Dragon” like the song by Peter, Paul & Mary) was experiencing joy sitting with her mom and brothers. She was also OBLIVIOUS to how spiritually and emotionally wealthy she was as a daughter who had an overflowing amount of love, guidance, protection, and provision from her mother and loving + wise + well ancestors.
I ended up using the photo as the base of today’s collage that is entitled “A Little Girl Is Oblivious.”
I added a photo of my current self. That photo represents me as a woman whonnow recognizes and claims her spiritual and emotional weath.
Several Bese Saka symbols were included in the collage. Bese Saka is a beautiful Adinkra symbol that represents abundance and wealth. They are placed in the right-hand corner of the collage.
One last thing! I wrote a statement in the upper left-hand side that expresses how I was OBLIVIOUS as a little girl about the spiritual and emotional weath I had as a result of my mom’s love, presence, wisdom, guidance, protection, creativity, joy, and adventure.
YOUR INVITATION
Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the questions below.
1) Think back to your childhood and the connections you shared with loved ones like your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Can you recall something you didn’t know about them and later learned when you were an adult?
2) Did the new information you learned about them impact you in any way?
Bottle is the prompt for #Februllage Day 9. My collage is entitled Mother + Daughter + Granddaughter Memory from 1986.
I thought about memories I wish I could have bottled. I decided to create a collage about my memory of standing next to my mother Theresa and grandmother Dorothy (known as Nanan) in a family photo that was taken during my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary celebration in 1986.
I remember my mom being so happy to renew her vows with my dad in the presence of her children, family, and friends. I was very happy to serve as her maid of honor and celebrate my parents. I think Nanan was happy to see her daughter so happy.
This photo is one of the only photos I have with all of us together. It’s hard to believe that it was taken 40 years ago. When I look at it now, I can truly appreciate the layers of mother-daughter love that existed between us as imperfect human beings.
I started the collage with a photo that my niece Jordan took of me during our 2021 visit to the KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden that featured the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She encouraged me to pose by the floral exhibit.
Side Note: We both love flowers.
I was so happy that day because I got to spend it with my niece who is the daughter I never had and one of my favorite people in the world.
I remember telling my mom how happy I was that Jordan and I got to share the joy of seeing one of our favorite artists together. I also texted this photo to my mom. She loved art and flowers just like Jordan and me.
Both photos are filled with moments I wish I could have bottled so I could open them on days when I need a quick reminder of how I blessed I am to be Theresa’s daughter, Dorothy’s granddaughter, and Jordan’s aunt.
YOUR INVITATION
Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the question below.
If you could bottle moments spent with your loving + wise + well ancestors, what would they be?
I woke up this morning thinking about the CHANGES I am facing and the ones I know family, friends, colleagues, and clients are facing. I also wondered about the CHANGES you and your family, friends, and colleagues might be facing. That’s why I am reaching out to find out what’s happening with you.
Please use this week’s Thriving Mindfully Food for Thought as a reflection guide. I’d love to hear what’s happening with you. Feel free to comment or send me an email at ananda@anandaleeke.com.
If you need more help, check out my Thriving Mindfully self-care resources and sign up for Thriving Mindfully Mondays below. I look forward to hearing from you and supporting you during the next four sessions of Thriving Mindfully Mondays on September 8, 15, 22, and 29.
Join me on September 8, 15, 22, and 29 from 7:30 p.m. ET to 8:15 p.m. ET for a four-week self-care series that offers a virtual community gathering with safe space to ground yourself with a mindful moment and participate in a mindful creative activity (journaling, affirmation and letter writing, collage, drawing, coloring, or painting).
These sessions are offered as a gift with an invitation to make a donation to support my work.
Use the schedule below to gather your own writing and art-making supplies for each session.
1) September 8: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will create an intention and affirmation reminder, sign, page, or poster with an index card, journal page, or colorful construction or drawing paper. Bring your favorite crayons, pencils, or magic markers. Decorate it with drawings, doodles, or stickers.
2) September 15: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will write a letter to yourself or create a collage. Bring a picture of yourself as a child, a pen, and paper to write a letter to yourself.
Bring poster board, construction paper, drawing paper, a glue stick, scissors, your favorite magazines, crayons, pencils, and magic markers to create your collage.
3) September 22: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will create a drawing or painting. Bring white poster board or drawing paper, paint brush, watercolor or tempera paint set, crayons, pencils, and/or magic markers.
4) September 29: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore writing prompts.
In honor of Father’s Day (which is every day), I am sharing an excerpt from American Change Agent, the book my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke, wrote about his life and work in diversity, equality, and inclusion. This excerpt is from Chapter 21: Our Father’s Journey: How My Children See Me (pages 428-429).
Copyright 2025 by John F. Leeke and Madelyn C. Leeke
Before former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant coined the phrase “girl dad” and it went viral as a hashtag on social media after ESPN anchor Elle Duncan shared a memory of her conversation with him during a tribute to his life in 2020, my father lived and breathed it. For those who don’t know, a girl dad is a father who wants his daughter to be treated equally. That means he wants her to have the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as any boy. For as long as I can remember, my father has shown me a fierce love wrapped in an endless bow of support and freedom of expression. His personal investment in my well-being as a child, teenager, young adult, and now as of this writing a 59-year-old woman is beyond words. He and my mother taught me I could be and do anything in the world because it was mine.
There are moments I can remember when he showed up in my defense as only as a girl dad could. Like the time, he met with the two nuns at my all-girls Catholic high school and told them in his loud Black man voice that they were racist due to their mistreatment of me and the other members of the Awareness Black Culture Club. He has believed in me when I couldn’t, especially during the eight times I took and failed the bar exam and each time I have written and published a book. He has even helped me write parts of my books over the telephone when I was running out of creative energy and patience. He has listened to me in my craziest moments and advised me before and after I have taken several risks in my career.
Ours is a rich, layered, and intense relationship that has allowed me to explore and express myself; experiment with my life, career, and creativity; and passionately pursue my healing and wholeness with confidence, freedom, and a safety net that he will always be in my corner no matter what. Being Dr. John F. Leeke’s daughter has given me the honor of sitting in the front row of his life as a digital senior citizen activist, blogger, podcaster, storyteller, and author. As time moves us forward, our relationship is blessing me and my brothers with perhaps the greatest honor: supporting my father as he walks the path of a wise person in his aging process. What a gift to behold!
WATCH ASK DR. JOHN, A FATHER-DAUGHTER CONVERSATION VIDEO SERIES
The video features a discussion my dad and I had about fatherhood.
ABOUT BOOK
American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion is a memoir written by Dr. John F. Leeke with his daughter Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke. It tells the rich, inspiring journey of Dr. Leeke, a descendant of the Akan people of Ghana, the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Indigenous Turtle Island nations, European settlers, and freedom seekers who escaped slavery in Hagerstown, Maryland. This collection of stories spans 85 years of his life, showcasing his family, career, and dedication to diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Explore Dr. Leeke’s early years in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana, his Catholic education in Washington, DC, and his academic pursuits at Indiana State Teachers College. Follow his career as a teacher and guidance counselor in Flint, Michigan, his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, and his impactful work in community organizing and organizational development.
Learn how Dr. Leeke’s leaps of faith in various roles, including his tenure at the National Education Association and his entrepreneurial ventures, solidified his commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion. His reflections on six decades of diversity, equality, and inclusion work reveal the institutional changes he championed and his ongoing influence in retirement through church involvement, civic engagement, and online activism.
Dr. Leeke’s stories are an invitation to reflect on your own journey, embrace humanity’s diversity, and become a change agent in your community.
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Ananda Leeke 