Hats off to Black men; let’s change the narrative…Three Pittsburgh-area Black men tell their stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPOTLIGHT ON SENIORS

by Renee P. Aldrich

“Black brotha, I love ya, and I’ll never try to hurt ya…I want ya to know that I’m here for you, forever true, ’cause you’re my Black brotha, strong brotha, and there is no one above ya…I want ya to know that I’m here for you, forever true…”

– Angie Stone, “Brotha”

 

Black men in this country get a “bad rap.” Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know this to be true. We see it daily in news and most media outlets, and it does not drastically stop with age. Regrettably that “bad rap” does not decrease as men age, but actually intersects with the prevailing issues that can come along with aging—many similar to those that women face, and many different.

Starting with health disparities; September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. In the year 2000, the American Cancer Society reported that Black men suffer from higher incidence and mortality rate of prostate cancer than any other ethnic group in the world. As a result of that finding, part of their 2015 vision and mission for African Americans was to decrease that number by 50 percent. Needless to say we entered 2025, and up to this date, that is a statistic that remains the same.

Aging for men holds many of the same challenges it does for women; poor representation in the media, negative assumptions by society in general, ageism, and generational tension, just to name a few.

None of this means that there are not plenty of men who are aging well, because there are.

For this column, I’ve identified three local men who represent that group of Black men who have managed to overcome statistics and stigmas around aging and being Black.

Charles (Chuck) Timbers is 74 years of age, and has a few things he is proud of. 1. He still lives where he grew up. 2. Since 1984, he has been a Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner and was the first African American male in Pittsburgh to become so. 3. He proudly is caretaker of his sister, Keona Timbers, who is special needs and whom he describes as being joined at the hip. 4. He engages one of his absolute passions which is the ability to perform on stage as an actor for local theatre companies.

He shared that the most remarkable thing about being 74 is that he can honestly say that he is content.

“I may not have accomplished all the goals I had for my life as a young man, but I have been and am still blessed. The years go by so fast—I did have goals I wanted to achieve, I used to say that by the time I’m a particular age, I want to have a certain thing, and it did not happen, But I am not disappointed, because I’ve had a good life. Yes, I am content —at 74—I am actually free, I no longer live to please anyone.”

An introvert in his youth, Chuck Timbers is amazed that he’s been able to act and sing all these years. “As a young person, I would go out of my way to avoid crowds. But change happened when, after my first high school play was over and we all went up on stage and I experienced the overwhelming audience response—the applause and the standing ovation gave me a feeling and knowledge that I wanted to keep doing this.”

Chuck Timbers realizes that as men and women age, society is harder on women than it is on men. There are so many standards placed on women as opposed to men—it celebrates older men and denigrates senior women.

In the matter of men’s health, Chuck Timbers’ passion about raising awareness about men’s health stems from not only his work as a healthcare provider, but also his personal cancer journey. He is a three-time cancer survivor, of which one is prostate cancer.

“Once you survive a cancer diagnosis, you look at life differently,” Chuck Timbers told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “You recognize the second chance to zero in on your purpose, and if you are smart, you take the opportunity to embrace it.”

Reverend Robert Tedder at age 62 recognizes and values his life as he ages. He shared that resiliency and adaptability in the wake of the challenges and accomplishments he has encountered during his life is what he finds most remarkable.

“Being able to adapt to what this life has thrown at me and still be standing and contributing, which I owe to my God and my faith, continues to be remarkable to me,” Rev. Tedder said.

He is particularly qualified to have such an attitude because he is a true example of what it is to re-invent themselves. He is an ordained minister and is currently the Director of Children and Family Initiatives at Project Destiny, and has previously served as a Senior Pastor at a church. Reverend Tedder, an educator by profession, joined Teach for America at the age of 57 and taught at a school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for two years, starting in 2020.

With his experience and credentials, he, too, believes that society is often unable to see what seniors bring to the table in terms of experience, wisdom and capacity.

“I think there is still an emphasis on youth, and as the segments of the population ages, society makes the incorrect assumption that we are no longer useful, we are out of touch and/or lacking in skills to do things as well as someone younger—resulting in no understanding in the value that comes from life experience and age,” Rev. Tedder told the Courier.

The reverend remarked around his own health issues: “I was one of those who did not always prioritize my health—I considered myself healthy. In 2005, my world changed after finding I had some pretty high numbers. Further, after years of having my condition mismanaged, had it not been for my wife, who is a nurse, the issues with my diabetes would have never stabilized. Thankfully, after her intervention±—which my doctors tried to dissuade, things turned around, and I’ve been managing well ever since.”

At age 82, George Moses has been an advocate for disenfranchised folks around housing for most of his career, and is still employed full-time as a Community Housing Coordinator for a contractor with Highmark, and serves as an advocate for folks in need around housing and health care. At his age, Moses finds most remarkable the fact that his capacity is as outstanding as it is; and sees no problem at all with working full-time. He admits that the aging process crept up on him.

“When I turned 50, I made no notice of it, I still felt pretty good. At 70, I began to feel some of the aches and pains that appear with age,” Moses told the Courier. And in spite of being a prostate cancer himself, “I still felt good and blessed,” he said.

Moses believes that society, in general, has shown a blatant disregard for seniors, and says it starts in the home.

“The kindness we seek from society is missing because the things we learned in our homes as children are no longer prevalent,” Moses voiced. “We were taught respect for elders, no ifs, ands or buts about it. And you knew that if you were disrespectful to adults and elders in general, you would pay for it dearly. If we could once again capture that teaching in the home, it would possibly spill over into society.”

Additionally, the media plays a role in how society perceives seniors, Moses said.

We celebrate Black men, not just in September, but all year long. The narrative around aging and being Black —especially a man—must change, and it will. A similar theme runs through the above stories. These men are busy, they have purpose, they have faith and family, they have commitment and they’ve been endowed with the will to carry on.

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