Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield wanted an engaging 20-minute talk for its Speakers Bureau members to deliver to lay audiences. The topic: wellness.

How to make it interesting? Enlist Whistler’s mother, an icon of old womanhood who was – amazingly – only 59 when she sat for the famous portrait. Most 59-year-olds today look much younger than Whistler’™s mother, and in great measure that’s due to common wellness practices, including nutrition and physical activity.

The lively speech became known among community organizations, whose program chairs often called to request it.