Ronnie & Christine - Non Participant

All right. Thank you two for joining me. Could you start by saying your name and introducing yourself, telling me a little bit about you.

My name is Ronnie Martin.

Tell me a little bit about you.

Oh, I don't know. Depending on what you want to know about me, you can ask.

Okay, well, what did you use to do?

I worked at a factory.

Okay.

About 20 something years.

Are you still working?

No.

Okay.

I'm on Social Security disability.

Okay.

Are you from Milwaukee?

Yes, I am.

Okay.

What part of town did you grow up on?

Six and locust.

Okay.

You've been over there for pretty much your whole life in that area?

About 20 something years. I'm no longer there now.

Okay.

About 20 something. 26. 25. 26 years.

How was it growing up?

It was okay. Not bad.

Yeah. What was your family dynamic like? What was growing up like?

Kind of crazy fun, but, you know, just normal life. Just normal life.

Okay.

Okay, normal life. Could you state your name and tell me a little bit about yourself?

I'm Christine Wallace. I'm 55 years old. I'm from Louisiana originally, but I grew up on six and Hadley for about 15 years. Yeah. And I'm an only child, so I didn't have siblings.

Okay, okay.

How was it growing up?

Kind of lonely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

No siblings. No.

I mean, some people see that as fun, you know, to get spoiled, according to some people.

Some people, yeah.

Okay. Okay.

What are some of your interests and some of the activities that you enjoy? I'll start over here. Some of your interests and activities that you enjoy.

Music activities. I, like, enjoy listening to a lot of music, and I'm not really a sports person. I watch a little bit, but I'm not a person to play or no athletic type person, so.

Okay. Okay. What about you?

I just enjoy being at home. I don't pretty much do anything. Like I said, I'm on disability also.

Okay.

I'm pretty much at home all the time.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

Okay. How do you typically spend a day, like, in a 24 hours time span? What does that look like for you?

I'm somewhat like a clean freak. Neat freak or something. I just don't know how to stop finding something to fix or something to work on, something to clean. So what kind of neat freak type person? So that's how I describe it.

You just do that all day?

All day long?

All day long.

Be tired as. I don't know what.

Pretty much done rubbed off on me.

Yeah.

Trying to figure out why am I so tired? I said, cause you ain't sat down from the time you woke up.

Oh, wow.

That ain't all bad, you know, it's nerve wracking.

Gotta know when to give it a break, and I just don't know when to give it a break.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cause, you know, all the years we were together, but we started getting on my nerves. I'm like, sit down somewhere.

But you're not getting on your nerves. How do you spend your day?

I stay at home all day, pretty much bring my daughter to school, and he picks her up from school and pretty much headed back to the house.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

Okay.

Are there any routines or hobbies that are particularly important to you? Any routines, anything that you kind of do every day, that you gotta do.

It every day, clean and pick his daughter.

Hobbies?

I don't have any hobbies.

You don't have any hobbies?

No.

Okay. Okay. What about you?

No. Pretty much take my daughter to school, wait on her to get out. He picks her up. I pick her up from his house, and then I go back home.

All right, so y'all just be sitting down.

Just.

I watch tv all day long, and.

You upping about all day long up in a box.

Tv. I don't know if it's a month.

Rent is too high. I'm enjoy all my house.

I hear you.

My age or whatever, but I. Tv mainly bores me or put me to sleep.

Yeah.

No matter interest, like I used to have in tv, not movies. And none of that.

I hear you. Looking back, what are some life experiences you think have shaped you the most?

Have shaped me the most. Stan. Cleen. I have a few drinks here and there. Being clean and sober some pretty much is one good thing in my life. That's a blessing that I'm no longer in that kind of lifestyle period. So that's one of my blessings.

Yeah, I like that.

What about you?

My kids?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It really helped shape who you are today.

They did. Slowed me down a lot.

Yeah.

How many kids do you have?

Three.

Okay.

33, 31, and 17.

Okay. Okay.

So you got one still in high school?

Yeah, she's about to graduate. Yeah, that's our last one.

Okay.

Okay. Let's talk about health and well being. How do you manage your health and your wellness as you age? How do you handle your.

My health?

Your health and your wellness?

I just pretty much take it day by day, and I just pretty much take care of myself. But I had, like, a surgery on my spine back in 2017, and it damaged my left leg, so that takes away a lot. Being just pretty much like a normal person. Cause it's paralyzed in this left leg. Yeah, that's a big difference. So has devastated me a lot in life. To not be able to use your body parts normally. Yeah.

Are there specific routines or activities that you find beneficial to the condition?

Yeah, no, just. That's the reason I clean so much. Cause I can't do a lot of other things because of my situation. Just keep it moving one way or the other.

Okay.

What about you? How do you manage health and wellness as you age?

Well, actually, I have a. My son is my worker, so he pretty much helped me in maintaining all my doctor's appointments and stuff like that.

Okay.

And then are there specific routines and activities that you find beneficial?

Just being able to get up in the morning. Very beneficial, yeah.

So just starting your day, can you describe any challenges you face in maintaining your health and how you overcome them? So you already talked about, you know, kind of your spinal condition in your leg. Beyond that, is there anything else that you kind of deal with that kind of challenges you on a day to day basis?

No. No.

Okay.

Are there any, like, physical activities or anything like that that you do to overcome, like, your leg condition?

Say that again.

Are there any, like, physical activities or anything that you do to, like, kind of overcome your leg condition?

Just keep, I guess, keep doing what? I just, like I said, stay active one way or the other, so. Yeah, okay. I stay active due to the leg situation. Like I say, constantly fixing on finding something to fix on, something to clean, something to repair from watches to all kind of different stuff. So. Yeah.

Okay.

That's somewhat a thing I'm into now is just ain't able to get around like I want to get around, so I just find something work on.

Right, right.

Okay.

What about you? Can you describe any challenges you face in maintaining your health and how you overcome them?

Because also I have Ms and I had surgery, so my feet are pretty much numb because I had a cancer on my kidney. So with the surgery, it kind of damaged my feet and I got Ms. So, you know, my son helps me out a whole lot.

Okay, so your son is the thing that you use to overcome those challenges.

Okay.

In terms of diet, exercise and mental health, what strategies do you find most effective for staying healthy? So let's start with diet. What strategies do you find most effective for staying healthy? Regards to your diet?

Diet. I'm so skinny, I don't have it. Unless I'm not understanding the question, but no.

So diet, things you eat and drink.

Things to eat.

Okay. That's one thing I'm starting to lose is I don't, a lot of times have an appetite. So when I'm eating, it's pretty much somewhat forcing myself to just put something in my stomach.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

So what kind of things do you reach out to during those moments? What are you picking up when it's time to eat?

I'm picking up. What am I picking up when it's time to eat?

What do you like to eat?

Oh, shit. Awful. She cooks a lot of good dinners and stuff for me. Soon she'd have to name some of the things. Meatloaf, spaghetti. I like fish, shrimp.

So is there anything that you do in particular, like, is healthy eating at the top of your mind, would you say? No, not really.

Okay.

Just don't want to be hungry, have my stomach growling. So I'm afraid I got to get something in there.

Right.

I hear you.

All right. What about you, Christine?

I eat pretty much everything. You know, I don't have a specific diet.

Okay.

Whatever it is, whatever I feel like cooking, that's what we eating for today.

Okay. Okay.

So staying healthy, I mean, you can define what that is. Right.

But I'm pretty much healthy overall.

But in terms of your diethyde, would you say, like, health is at the top of your mind when you're okay. What about exercise?

Barely for me.

Same here.

Okay.

Barely.

Okay.

And then what about mental health? What strategies do you all use to stay healthy?

Mental health. I don't have any mental health issues.

Even without issues. Right. So we still have mental wellness. Right. Just being in a good head space.

I stay at home pretty much all day long. So my mental health is pretty good right now.

Well, how do you stay in a good headspace? What are some things that you do to stay in a good headspace?

Stay at your home address.

That's pretty much mine. Just, I stay pretty much to myself, so I don't really get out and about, socialize too much. Go visit like I used to back in the day.

I'm too old for that now.

I don't do a lot of that no more, so.

Okay.

Just staying to myself pretty much keeps me.

Keeps you steady?

Steady, yeah.

Okay.

Let's talk about staying informed and engaged.

Okay.

With all of the information that's out here that's available, how do you stay informed about the world around you? How do you stay informed, and then are there particular sources or methods you use that you particularly trust?

I just listen to look and listen to a lot of news, I guess. To stay on top of things but yeah.

What kind of news? Like, what stations do you.

Channel twelve. Mainly channel twelve and six, although they repeat the same stuff over and over and over. But yeah. I'm a person that wake up in the morning and watch news every hour. And I know it's gonna come back on in the afternoon, I'm gonna watch it. When it comes on at night, I'm gonna watch it. So when person stay in touch with stuff as far as knowing what's going on in the world is by watching a lot of news.

So you primarily use, like, the television?

Yeah.

Okay. Okay. What about you?

Mostly the television and word of mouth from people calling me.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

A lot of people into the stuff with they phones. I'm just not one of them people.

Mm.

Oh, yeah. My phone too.

She might be.

Oh, okay, fine.

I'm not.

He get mine with your phone now. I thought I paid this bill. Didn't I buy this phone?

Right, right.

I world, I'm just going phone crazy. That's why people be having all these accidents. I think people be getting hit by cars. Cause a lot of folks be trying to cross streets in town on their phone, ain't paying no attention. That's kind of messed up. That's why I'm not into phones like them.

How important is it for you to keep up with current events?

Not that important to me.

Why not?

Stuff that's going on, like games and stuff like that. Is that what you speak?

Just anything that you feel like is a current event. So it could be locally. So if there's activities going on, like events, or if there is too much.

Going on, I just don't catch my interest in all the stuff with all the shooting and people doing all that. So, yeah, I don't be wanting to go to a lot of stuff because of that reason.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't feel. I feel more safer if I'm home and I'm doing okay. I feel better than being in a club and all of a sudden.

Well, yeah. I mean, but it could be other things too, right? So what's going on with local. Local government? Current events could be a wide range of things. Not just like events, but you know what the local government is doing.

Yeah. That's why I said look at a lot of news. That's why. Kind of know I hear a lot about certain stuff going on. Some I understand, some I don't really understand, but I do listen and hear about it. Mm hmm.

Okay. What about you?

It doesn't really pique my mind. I mean, I could care less pretty.

Much about current events.

Right.

Okay.

I don't care what's going on out there, over there, over there.

It's all about you and your household, my house.

I hear you gotta work. I hear you all, the house ain't on fire.

I feel you.

How do you feel about using technology to access news and information? Do you find it easy or challenging?

Challenging for me, yeah.

Like with the phone, laptop, everything, anything.

I'm just not one. That doctor was trying to argue with me a little bit, cause she wanted to do the video thing over the phone appointment, because the weather was bad, I got upset. She said, what do you do with your phone? I saw her talk on it.

That's it?

Yeah, she wanted me to do the face chat thing.

Oh, okay.

I couldn't click in and I got frustrated, I got mad. So she said, what do you do with your phone? I said, I talk on it, you know, I'll do all the stuff, some of you people, videos and all. I'm not interested and I don't know how to do it. Next time, just let me come in. I said I was able to make it there. I wanted to do something on the phone. I don't want to do a phone thing because I don't know how to access it, get to it, you know. Yeah, she got pretty upset with me, but I just told her I used a phone for what I got it for, to talk on it.

I hear you.

For no other reason? Just being honest.

I hear you.

I hear you ain't into none of that race chat and all. Face talk, whatever they call it.

Face chat and face talk. Okay, face chat and face talk.

What do you call it?

Face talk. Oh, we go for today. We gonna call it face chat and face talk.

Wait til I'm away from here.

Okay.

Okay. That's the guy coming to get his gift card.

He comes to do some face talking, some face chat. What about you? Do you find using technology easy, tough?

Yeah, a lot of times it's pretty much easy.

Easy for you, yeah.

But the kids, when you try to ask them something, they act like they get so frustrated, they're not just teach you how to use a spoon and fork when you're screwing up.

That's true.

So you can't teach me to show me this? It's pretty much easy sometimes.

Okay.

And you access information like news from your phone as well, or not really. Okay. Sometimes. All right, let's talk about interest in evidence based programs. So have either one of you ever participated in a structured program or class focused on health and wellness? I haven't, no, neither one of you.

Okay.

The evidence based programs offer structured ways to improve health and wellness over an eight week period. So it's for eight weeks. What are your initial thoughts on joining such a program and would you, what would make you interested or disinterested in participating?

I would want to know more about what they offer, what the program is offering. Right, right.

What about you?

Yeah, I'm with her. I'd have to learn more about what they got to offer. I mean, how's it going to benefit me?

But would the eight weeks be like a turn off for you?

No, for my condition, I think it would be somewhat of a turn off.

Okay.

As long as it's in the mornings for me.

Okay.

Do anything after twelve.

Gotcha.

Understanding that these programs require a weekly commitment, what potential barriers can make participation difficult for you? So you said something about that.

My daughter is a senior.

Okay.

And just the time that she gets out of school. Cause some days, alternate days, she goes at nine, some days she goes at 715.

Oh, okay.

It alternates. So like the days you have to go at 09:00 she might get out at 1248.

Okay.

But then that's his job to pick her up. But I just have to take her. Morning.

Okay. Gotcha.

So kind of time constraints, right?

Yeah. What about you?

Same time restraints? Yeah, same situation.

Okay.

But other than that, you feel like you don't have any barriers?

No.

Okay.

And then lastly, what incentives or support would make you more likely to join and stay committed to the program?

Just know, I mean, learning, whatever is something new that you can learn or get out of the program. Something that probably would have been beneficial a long time ago.

Yeah.

Excuse me. And I didn't know it was there, so. Yeah, maybe that would give me incentive to keep going with it.

Okay.

Okay.

What about you?

Same, same.

So just learning something new.

Right.

Okay.

That I didn't know that was out there, that was available for me. Yeah.

Okay, great, great.

Is that what this is, a eight week situation? I mean, eight week deal is about this.

No, this just.

Or you talking about them? Yeah, this is just an interview. But the evidence. Yeah, yeah. They're typically about eight weeks long.

Okay.

It might be like one day per week for a couple hours.

Oh, that's not bad.

Yeah.

So one day out of a week.

I think it's one day out of a week.

That ain't bad. I'm making my doctor's appointments and all that, so I ain't have an apartment making until a doctor's appointment. I shouldn't have a problem one day out of the week making it to that certain event.

Right.

Okay, well, that is all that I have for you two today. I appreciate you coming through and doing this interview with me.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.