On Nov. 16, at a festive celebration in the grand ballroom of Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, five international celebrities were presented the coveted Opera News Magazine's Award for Distinguished Achievement: composer John Adams and singers Natalie Dessay, Marilyn Horne, Renee Fleming and Sherrill Milnes. ...more

December 10, 2008

Turkeys are not the only things getting stuffed at this time of year. Stockings are waiting to be filled with those singular, unexpected treats that, somehow, make this bright season even brighter. At Freedom Plaza we call those stocking stuffers "holiday entertainment specials" and our communal Christmas stocking is brimming with them. ...more

December 3, 2008

New residents were startled recently when they realized that all the furniture had disappeared from one corner of the Atrium; then they noticed a large red object with pronged feet squatting there, close to the floor. Soon it was holding a tall pole reaching up past the second floor balconies, tied to the banisters with clear fishing wire stretched across the high ceiling of the room. What kind of mechanical monster had invaded Freedom Plaza? What was happening? ...more

November 26, 2008

The following are South Shore locations where you can drop off new, unwrapped toys for the 2008 Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots drive: ...more

November 19, 2008

Employees, family members and friends of Freedom Plaza will be walking in the Freedom Plaza Sun City Center Memory Walk 2008 to help find a cure for Alzheimer's. Freedom Plaza is part of Brookdale Senior Living, an Independent Living Community. ...more

November 19, 2008

We haven't heard the first notes of "Silent Night" or "Jingle Bells." The halls are not yet decked with boughs of holly. The Thanksgiving turkeys are still frozen, but phrases such as "Tree Lighting Ceremony," "Freedom Carolers" and "auditorium ornaments" are creeping into conversations. Residents are thinking about familiar holiday routines and certain objects that have become a part of the communal life at Freedom Plaza: their traditions. ...more

November 19, 2008

English journalist John Evelyn, after seeing his first opera in 1735, called it "the most extravagant entertainment conceived by the mind of man." A French journalist writing in the same period deemed opera "a fight between composer and librettist which neither wins." Some 273 years later the controversy still lingers: Some people like opera; some do not. Some can take it or leave it. ...more

November 12, 2008

When a person who is terminally ill passes onto the next life, their final memories might be of the caring workers at LifePath Hospice in addition to their loved ones. ...more

November 12, 2008

Mention Branson, Mo., and most people think "country," fancy fiddling, cowboy boots and barnyard scenery. Try this instead: classical violin, sequined costumes and technical effects that might make a Broadway stage set seem antiquated. There are plenty of both with other venues that fit somewhere in between in this entertainment Mecca of the Ozarks and Freedom Plaza residents sampled a bit of it all during their recent Branson visit. ...more

November 5, 2008

"Whodunit?" will be the question at Freedom Plaza's first-ever murder mystery dinner show, "Murder in a Minor Key." ...more

October 22, 2008