C
areer coach Steven Lowell had helped professionals find work for years, but one of his most memorable clients wasn’t a client at all—it was his 82-year- old neighbor. The man had spent his career as a writer, but now, retirement wasn’t going as planned. The wife of the neighbor had dementia, which meant he needed to stay home to care for her. But with medical bills stacking up, he couldn’t afford to stop working. Lowell wanted to help. He sat down at a laptop with his neighbor and wrote out search terms he could use to find work. “I used his writing and walked him through what it’s like to send in proposals, have chats back-and- forth, and receive payments,” Lowell explained. Since his neighbor didn’t have a mobile phone, they worked together to identify safe and reliable clients. Importantly, Lowell also made sure his neighbor wasn’t navigating this alone. “I let him know that we have to keep in touch. If anything made him uncomfortable, it was OK to knock on my door and ask.” Every so often, his neighbor would joke, calling him "Mr. Lowell," as if he were his boss—a lighthearted nod to just how much guidance he had provided. For seniors
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