Marcia asked if we'd all sing Happy Birthday together. There was a pause. That moment when you're not sure if you're supposed to, if it's allowed, if you're the right person to start. Children looked at each other. But then someone began, and then another, and then all of us were singing. The hesitation became sound. Joy and Bob handed out red scarves at the door. If you didn't have red on, they offered you one. By the time we settled in the hall, red was on shoulders, in han

You probably know someone who still goes to class, brushing up on maths, joining a book club, or taking up a new hobby. And you've likely noticed they seem ... sharper. More energised. More themselves. Turns out, science agrees with what you've been observing. Learning keeps the brain strong A major study published in the journal Innovation in Aging (Oxford University Press, 2025) followed thousands of older adults across the United States. Researchers found that later-life l