ITEM: The city discontinues $10,000 in funding for senior services in one of Cincinnati's poorest neighborhoods.

        ITEM: Mayor Charlie Luken experiences what is commonly known as a “senior moment,” forgetting the last name of Rashad Young, the 26-year-old assistant city manager hired at a salary of $103,000.

        ITEM: Tuesday, two Senate bills to provide Medicare prescription drug coverage fail.

        ITEM: Last week, Mary Hoffman paid $159 for two weeks worth of pills prescribed after she fell and bruised her hip.

Careful spending

        These seemingly unrelated items bring me to the basement of North Fairmount Community Center, which offers daily meals to Mrs. Hoffman, 96 and “the girls,” some of whom are as young as mid-60s. Sister Margaret Anne shops at the FreeStore/FoodBank and buys day-old bread to stretch the food dollars. The center's van is used for occasional outings — creamy whip at Putz's, a picnic, a baseball game.

        Mary Hoffman, has lived alone since her husband, John, a bus driver, died in 1971. Her Social Security check — about $800 a month — would have been plenty back when she worked in the produce department at Kroger's. In 1927, Pogue's sold bloomers for 89 cents. A new Chevy cost $585, and bifocal glasses were $6. A nice apartment in a good part of town was $80 a month.

        In the intervening years, the Hoffmans raised two sons, paid their taxes, supported a church.

        I am trying to understand why Mrs. Hoffman and the girls — about 50 of them — are not worth an investment of $16.67 per month each. It's cheaper than a rest home or a hospital room. The center collaborates with Tri-Health's Parish Nurses to provide tests and health counseling. Plus, because woman does not live by bread alone — Monday is Bingo day.

        A grant application submitted to the city notes that those served are among the city's poorest citizens. Response includes a memo from City Manager Valerie Lemmie, explaining that policy is to allow “support for any human services program that is innovative. Traditional senior center programs are not considered innovative.”

        Well, of course, there is nothing innovative about a hot meal and a bingo game. Not nearly as innovative as cell phones and an unusually generous salary for a rookie bureaucrat. But these items — plus reminders that anybody can have a senior moment, including sticker shock for necessities — are indeed related.

        Mary Hoffman, who that morning ironed a tablecloth and cleaned her apartment, twists her worn wedding ring. She's healthy except for the pain in her hip. Pretty, too. Somebody once told her to put cream on her face if she wanted to keep her looks. And she evidently followed the advice.

        She is quite an item.

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