Helping Others Is Her Reward
Hands-on is the best way to describe Carmen E. Lopez. Whether it’s a goodby bearhug or nursing care at St. John’s Hospital or a community meeting she has organized, Lopez touches people in a special way.
“I was the oldest of 10 children and when I was getting my education, there were too many Carmen Lopezes, so I took the E for Energy from Albert Einstein’s formula of E=MC2and made it my middle initial,” she said one day recently as she hurried from her electronic networking class at the Santa Monica Library to her next appointment at the Ken Edwards Senior Center.
Her appointment book is already filled for the month of May.
Last year, Lopez, 65, was found to have severe high blood pressure and decided to cut back to part time in her nursing work with AIDS, cancer and post-coronary patients. She began the medication program prescribed for people with the condition.
But she also began to educate herself on the subject. She questioned doctors about studies done on post-menopausal women who were given the beta blockers, calcium blockers and vasal dilator drugs and found out that the data was pretty sparse.
She concluded that changing her diet and reducing her cholesterol level were probably as important to her health as the medicine--and then set about educating others as well.
“If this is happening to me, then there has to be a need to discuss diet and prescription drugs with other older women,” she said.
Lopez has also become active in the local chapter of the American Assn. of Retired Persons, the Santa Monica Strutters walking group and the Santa Monica Commission on Older Americans. She performs blood pressure tests monthly for the walkers and has logged more than 100 miles herself.
Lopez is more than a healer of the physical. She dedicates much of her time to bringing diverse groups of seniors together for the sake of mutual understanding.
“It’s very important to bring Latino, black and Jewish groups together. . . . It’s important to treat people with respect and dignity. They don’t have to like each other, but we’re all human beings and we’re stuck on this earth together so why not make the best of it?” she asks.
Lopez grew up in Illinois where she joined the order of Dominican Sisters after graduating high school. It was with the Dominican Sisters that she received her early nursing education and where she evolved, in her words, as a “radical feminist.”
“I could accept chastity and poverty, but I couldn’t accept competent, intelligent and powerful women taking orders from bishops. When I questioned this, the answer was always, ‘That’s the way it is done.’ So I left before I was supposed to take the Perpetual Vows,” she said.
She left Illinois, too, and came to California to finish her education. She continues to study at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital to keep her license current. When her AIDS patients ask her why she’s the only person who touches them, she answers, “You’re living with AIDS, not dying, and life is not to be taken for granted.”
For Carmen E. Lopez, helping others is both the reason and the reward for all of us being here. For everything else, she says, “look within.”
Bulletin Board
Here is a selective list of major centers and agencies that offer programs and services for seniors on the Westside.
Olive Stone Center, 1440 Harvard St., Santa Monica (310) 829-2228.
Culver City Senior Center, 4153 Overland Ave., Culver City, (310) 202-5856.
Felicia Mahood Senior Center, 11338 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 479-4119.
Westminster Senior Center, 1234 Pacific Ave., Venice, (310) 392-5566.
Senior Health and Peer Counseling Center, 2125 Arizona Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 828-1243.
West Hollywood Senior Center, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 851-8202.
Westside Independent Services for the Elderly (WISE Senior Services), 1527 4th St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9871.
City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, 200 N. Main St. 13th floor, Los Angeles, (213) 485-4851.
Hollywood Senior Center, 6501 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 465-2158.
