It’s news, if one can call it that, of a most minor sort. Old Bristlecone — that’s me — a California senior activist and a longtime weekly senior news columnist, is a’fixing to leave sunny California and move to Ohio.

Those who have never been in my situation won’t be able to fully appreciate my feelings of brooding sadness as my wife and I prepare to move.

While it’s true that we are most glad to go to Ohio to join our loving daughter, her husband and our three grandchildren, it’s also most true that Bristlecone, an 88-year-oldster and a 30-year resident of Sacramento, has to painfully uproot many dear and deep human relations here.

Here it was that I became involved in what turned out to be extremely important state legislation to aid the elderly, such as the establishment of a multimillion-dollar Alzheimer’s statewide diagnostic and treatment program. I became a staffer to the state Assembly Committee on Aging. Later, I helped to get legislation approved that set up geriatrics department chairs at the major state-funded medical schools. Along the way, I even won a six-year federal lawsuit that had charged the state Department of Aging with age discrimination in its hiring.

All this became possible through the kindness and help of many. These activities gave me much satisfaction and suffused my inner psyche with a poetic serenity by giving worthwhile purpose to my life.

Here, in Sacramento, sorrowfully, we also lost our precious son Frank, for whom I still quietly grieve. My loving wife, Magnolia Nan, who has shared more than sixty years of her life with me, now shares trepidation about our future. We two oldsters, as we pack up to go to Ohio, are motivated by our fond hopes that we will somehow again find solid purposes in our future lives. Wish us well.

Ted Ruhig, 88, has enjoyed a long and distinguished history of community service at the local, regional and national levels. Most recently, he has served with the Gray Panthers of Sacramento, the Older Women’s League, the Carmichael and state chapters of AARP, the Council of Sacramento Senior Organizations, the Congress of California Seniors, the National Silver-Haired Congress and many more.

Ruhig, who taught aging infrastructure to nursing home and allied personnel at American River College, was named Poet Laureate of the California Senior Legislature while serving as a founding member and its first chair. He was a founding vice chair of the Area 4 Joint Powers Board, and was a chair of the Sacramento County Commission on Aging.

On May 21, 2002, Ruhig received a resolution from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors for his service as chair of the In-Home Supportive Services Advisory Committee, and his service on the California Senior Legislature.

County Supervisor Muriel Johnson called Ruhig “the glue that holds the senior advocacy network together.”