Confronting health issues as one ages isn’t the most cheery prospect, yet Regina Smith knows how to deliver that message and still draw laughs.

“You know you’re getting old when everything either dries up or leaks,” she’ll tell an audience. Then she fleshes out the one-liner with hard facts.

Smith, a retired Minnesota State gerontologist, uses cartoon projections and snappy patter to inform audiences of the health issues that accompany aging, and how to deal with them.

She focuses on senior citizen groups such as the one she spoke to recently at Summit Center in Mankato.

“You’re the first group in history that is role-modeling for the younger generation because never have people lived so long,” said Smith, who sprinkled her talk with adages such as:

“Never let the brain be idle. If an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, then Alzheimer’s is the devil.”

And: “Old is the goal we’re all trying to reach, because it beats the alternative, doesn’t it?”

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