Section B The SaltsLake Gribane COMICS/B4 I TELEVISION/AS LYNN ZARITSKY How people with disa ties are paving the way for 1g baby boomers/B-3 HEALTH & SCIENCE Womenat 40: Dee Dee Neptune Menopause, money and the soul helps one of Hogle Zoo's remaining black-and-white le murs copewith the departure ofher daughters Jupiter (far left) and Daw BY NORMA WAGNER THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The babies have growninto teen agers, the career is in full swing, hot flashes are just beginning andacneac companies new wrinkles n in their 40s and 50s often find themselves in transition, coping with new psychological and physical is- sues. such as depression and meno. pause, and changing relationships that leave them struggling to find a new identity So a groupof fernale professionalsis holding a women’s conference Satur- day at Westminster College titled: “Su per Woman at 40 — What Happens Next? What we're trying to do is make sure women intheir 40s have an oppor- 2 Hogle Zoo iemursprepare for ‘repatriation’ in Madagascar tunity to deal withall the myriad issues in onefell swoop,” said the Rev. Silvia R. Behrend, minister ofreligious edu- cation at the First Unitarian Church of it LakeCity. Womentodayare requiredto be everything and do everything and take BY JOAN O'BR THE ALT LAKE TRIBUNE care of everyone. The one person who Two black-and-white ruffed lemurs from Hogle Zoo will travel next week to their ancestral home of Madagascar after nearly six monthsof training at often gets lost is the womanherself.” The conference will offer a wide wild. fter another mont! divorce. M@ Menopause and options in hor- range of sessions: W How‘o avoid financial pitfalls in Duke University’s “boot camp” for survival in the in habituation cages, these be released into the Mala- mone-replacement therapy y rainforest in hopes they can bolsterthe island nation’s dwindJing population of wild lemurs. @ Cosmetic surgery @ Recognizing and helping a friend whois being abused ‘Theeffortis sometimesreferred toas a professional dating service for endangered species, but the Caring for teen-agers and elderly parents. hoped-for result is not to cure the animals’ Saturday ave the species from extinction. Dee Dee Neptune, of Hogle Zoo’s animal carestaff, last June sent the 7-year-old lemurson the first leg of sis ofpride, excitement and worry Behrend and Salt Lake Tribune health columnist Regula E. Burki say ™ Depression and burnout their journey. She anticipates their release with a mix they came up with theidea of a wom- “I was surprised at howsad ‘T was,” she says of the night she prepared the lemurs for their midnight en's conference while at lunch one day. feeling sorryfor themselves We were talking about the jump flight to the Duke Primate Center in Durham, N.C. “Life in the wild is not as easy asit is in the zoos. They ave a rough road aheadof them.” Lemurs, the most critically endangered of pri- mates, have alreadytraveled a roughroad. Rapid population growth in impoverished Mada- gas he lemurs’ onlynative home,has caused de- forestationof their jungle habitat. Human pressures, iwolemurs from Hogle ae had to meet a number of The international Madagascar Fauna Group launched a three-year effort to increase the small tion or whatever, that won't heconsidered a loss to 5,000-acre Betampona Natural Reserve numbers onlyabout 30, although there are nearly 900 lemurs in zoos worldwide. wild population by drawing from zoos. Five lemurs the population werereleased in November 1997; the two from Hogle Zoo are amongfour morethat will be flown to Mada- dation. Duke U: diverait ‘s Primate Center reported gascar on Tuesday and released sometime next month. The group plans to repatriate 26 lemurs by project’s end. Before they were con: lered for repatriation, the Photos by Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune froni motherhood to retirement and how nobody talks about thein-between dences came well after we had released the animalsin the forest,” says Charlie Welch, the Ruffed Lemur ence’s 9 a.m. start about physical and phase,” said Burki, a Salt LakeCity gy- necologist who will talk at the confer- Re-stocking Project director, who just returned from Says. The Hogie Zoo lemurswerethe right age, were in goodheaith and wereraised hytheir parents — who arestill at Hogle Zoo. Further, theyare well-representedgenetically among lemurs in U.S. 200s. In other words, their parents were prolific breeders and theyare considered genetic “surplus. If theygo intothis release programanddo well that will be wonderfu!. But if they are lost to preda- including logging, environmentally unsound farming practices and poaching, have ied to decimation of Madagascar’s once-diverse wildlife. The population of wild lemurs in Madagascar’s oping with a partner's midlife cri- hormonal changes. newissues ham. We started trying to eliminate physical contact with keepers,” Neptunesays. “The lemurs needed to learn that humansare not goingio be their source of spots of marriage or divorce, seeking Neptune began providing enrichment, a tough spirituality becomes just one more thing women “have to do.” We're culturally socialized to be caregivers and we reach this decade in which all of the things we have given See LEMURS, Page B-2 See CONFERENCE. Page B-2 food. Humans are not going to be friendly In fact, the people of Madagascar have been known thata fo: riike animal thatis also endangered — killed one released lemur last March. Another iemur diedin July from a broken neck apparently sufferedin a fi We were extremelydisappointed. but both inci- and that’s when we came up with this idea” Behrend will discuss thespiritual dimension of aging, including finding a new identity and helping women care fortheir souls. The scarypart, she said. is that after raising children, building a career and bumping through the rough University’s “boot camp.” But the Hogle Zoo pair received some preparation before heading to Dur- s lost to pre- “We're done with having babies and we'refacingall these Betampona Reserve. Researchers would have questioned the animals ability to adapt to the wild if the deaths had occurred earlier after their release The lemursare trained for life in the wild at Duke to eat lemurs. Laughter is her medicine for cancer Christine Clifford refersto it as her “Twilight Zone experience.” Six weeks after surgery to remove a cancerous Temple Salt LakeCity cartoons, each dealing in some waywith cancer. “! tion, stem-cell rescue, the environmental had never drawn, I was not a cartooni: Clifford said from her home in Edina, Minn. “I went back to ment andbreast cancer the night, went downstairs to the family room and began sketching Whatcameont of those wee morning hours were 50 ‘What was that?’ ” p under mychin and thonght The next day, Clifford went to a bookstore, stopped at the information counter and said, “I'd like to see all of your humorous books on cancer, please. The clerk turned to Clifford and said, “You're sick,” a comment that provided material for yet another cartoon Later, at a party, she wasoffered a cigarette. Her response was met with laughter. “Gee, no thanks, I already have cancer.” Humor became Clifford's tool for survival and also the subject of two books: Not Now I’m Having a Bad Hair Day and Our Family Has Cancer, Too! ‘There's nothing humorousabout getting a diagno- Christine Clifford could find no cancerhumor books, so she wrote her own. Seniinar will bbeSaturday, from 8 an to4 , at the DoubleTree Hotel, 2 5 S. West lumpin her breast, Clifford woke up in the m In addition to keynote speakers Christine Clifford and Ronnie Kaye. y sions on such topics as surgery, reconstruc- causes of breast cancer, hormone replacewoman over 50. A 2 p.m. fashion show will feature breast-can. cer survivors. Cost is $20 including lunch. Scholarships are ayailal To register, call 888-592-2 City. Author/psychologist Ronnie Kaye, whose book examines how women heal emotionally from breast cancer. will give the second keynote address. In addi tiou, Clifford and Kaye will conduct breakout ses. sions on similar topics. Clifford's humorous approach {o herillness was prompted by her mother’s response to breast cancer some 20 years prior. “My mother’s diagnosis of sis of cancer. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy breast cancer said Clifford. ford said. “My mother chose a path of extreme depression that she never came out of. She crawled into “But you can get through it, and that is my message It is a message shewill share in a keynote address. “Laughter: A New Twist to the Old Illness of Can cer.” at the 10th annual Life After Breast Cancer seminar Saturday at the DoubieTreeHotel, Salt Lake had a profoundeffect on mylife,” Clif. bed and literallystayed there until the dayshe died Even though she lived four years [after her diagno. we stopped enjoyingheras a motherthe day she ad surgery. FRIDAY IN DAYBREAK: PUT YOUR FACE ON A PUMPKIN POOR COPY GEE, NO THANKS.../ ALREADY HAVE CANCER. That response left Clifford, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 1994. determined to celebrate every dayof mylife with my family and friends... I would not have mychildrenliving life where they grew up fearing every day of mylife would be my last Clifford was a self-described “workaholic” — a senior executive of a large marketing firm — when diagnosed. “I certainly didn’t have a focus of humor See LAUGHTER, Page B-2