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Chateau Retirement cares about residents and employees equally. They were committed to making investments to demonstrate this value. How did the relationship begin, and why Reverb? Where was Chateau as an organization and what led them to pursue external support? Emily Senff, Reverb’s Practice Director for People Development, and Leadership Coach Anu Aurora join Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio show.
Emily says, "All of our coaches and consultants are very seasoned leaders who have organizational expertise, who have led businesses, teams. And so they really understand the complexity of it, what it means to build and develop healthy teams who can communicate and collaborate and support each other. So we're very lucky to have such a talented team."
Suzanne adds, "And we as a community in the Chateau world, and as far as seniors go, we're very lucky to have somebody like you helping us develop the staff that care for our most vulnerable."
Emily Senff is Reverb’s Practice Director for People Development. She is responsible for the strategic leadership of Reverb’s leadership development and coaching services. Her superpower is building relationships with clients to understand their pain points and needs, and matching them to Reverb’s exceptional team of consultants, facilitators, and coaches. Before Reverb, Emily was a seasoned leadership development and talent management leader and also worked in nonprofit.
Anu Aurora has over 25 years of experience developing leaders at all levels as an industry leader and leadership coach. Anu coaches leaders to identify core issues, make the complex simple, move them past their blocks, and create transformational results. Anu brings with her international experiences from 3 continents; industry skills from aerospace, high-tech, defense sector, and corporate engineering management background as a Director in a Fortune 50 company.
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit Chateau on the web or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Learn more about Reverb Consulting at Reverb People.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
Chateau's commitment to its people helps the families they work with. At Chateau Retirement, leadership development and coaching services make it all better. Tamra Godfrey, CEO of Chateau Retirement, and Emily Senff, Reverb’s Practice Director for People Development, join Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio show.
Emily says, "Tamra and the leadership team and everyone at Chateau is thoughtfully thinking about support at every level of the organization. Sometimes with organizations, that type of personalized, tailored support is often at a senior leadership level. That's different here at Chateau. They want to make sure that the support and the commitment is felt at every level of the organization. It matters to families and residents because they feel like employees are really well treated. They're taken care of. And when you feel really well-taken-care-of and happy, and feel like you're getting support, you exude and represent that in the work that you do."
Emily Senff is responsible for the strategic leadership of Reverb’s leadership development and coaching services. Her superpower is building relationships with clients to understand their pain points and needs, and matching them to Reverb’s exceptional team of consultants, facilitators, and coaches. Before Reverb, Emily was a seasoned leadership development and talent management leader and also worked in nonprofit.
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit Chateau on the web or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Learn more about Reverb Consulting at Reverb People.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
This week, Answers for Elders is talking about people development at Chateau Retirement Communities. This is important to anyone that is seeking a senior living community, or any kind of provider that instills trust. You have to trust them. How many organizations actually talk about how they develop their people? And it should be important to everyone that is seeking senior care. These are important questions to ask, about the people development of an organization. Tamra Godfrey, CEO of Chateau Retirement, and Anu Aurora with Reverb People join Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio show.
Reverb helps Chateau to grow their leaders so they can be more strategic in their work and outlook. In a time when residents (and employees) have more needs, Reverb supports Chateau leaders to focus critical thinking, curiosity, empathy, and social skills. Ultimately organizations have to not only nurture and develop these skills, but also figure out how to look for these skills in hiring. A growth mindset is so important for organizations to thrive. Chateau continues to show investment in this work, their people and residents.
Anu says, "A lot of my coaching is strengths-based and value-based. Part of the initial work I do with the clients is understanding what their personal values are, and what are their superpowers, super strengths. And I always feel that if individuals can align their work along those two, that everything else falls into place.
"They come because they believe in this work. They come because they have very high compassion, their sense of belonging and commitment. And those are their values. For most of them. I share those values, and their superpowers might be different, very mixed. That's why we are better together, because one person brings one superpower, the other one brings another power, and they start to see that, yeah, I am bigger with this person because this is what I bring and this is what the other person brings. And to recognize that we complement each other."
Anu Aurora has over 25 years of experience developing leaders at all levels as an industry leader and leadership coach. Anu coaches leaders to identify core issues, make the complex simple, move them past their blocks, and create transformational results. Anu brings with her international experiences from three continents; industry skills from aerospace, high-tech, defense sector, and corporate engineering management background as a Director in a Fortune 50 company.
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit Chateau on the web or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Learn more about Reverb Consulting at Reverb People.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
What makes the lives of senior living residents flourish? At Chateau Retirement, leadership development and coaching services make it better. Tamra Godfrey, CEO of Chateau Retirement, and Emily Senff, Reverb’s Practice Director for People Development, join Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio show.
In the USA today, families are more overwhelmed and confused than ever when trying to find the right resource for their senior loved ones. Since COVID, so many organizations have cut corners—reducing staff, compromising values, and lowering the quality of care.
Chateau Retirement has remained steadfast for the past 25 years—holding true to its values and continuing its commitment to both their employees and the residents they serve. That commitment is not just something Suzanne has heard about or observed from afar, but rather personally experienced as a daughter when her mom lived at Chateau.
Emily says, "I think values also is like less about what people say or what's up on the wall and how they actually, like, treat and interact with others. And so to be able to witness, you know, employees at Chateau and how they partner internally and Cross-functionally and then in turn see how they serve their residents, I mean, I think that speaks volumes. That's how you know."
Emily Senff is Reverb’s Practice Director for People Development. She is responsible for the strategic leadership of Reverb’s leadership development and coaching services. Her superpower is building relationships with clients to understand their pain points and needs, and matching them to Reverb’s exceptional team of consultants, facilitators, and coaches. Before Reverb, Emily was a seasoned leadership development and talent management leader and also worked in nonprofit.
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit Chateau on the web or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Learn more about Reverb Consulting at Reverb People.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
Residents are sharing what it's like to join a senior living community. Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast is joined by Judith, a resident at Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Washington. It follows conversations with resident Ann and her daughter Jen.
Judith says, "I was born and bred in South Africa. My family had been there for a few quite a few generations. So I left there, and I was married and had two children, one son, one daughter, and eventually that broke up. After my daughter finished university in Johannesburg in South Africa, she moved across London to do a two-year sabbatical, which was the fun thing to do for graduate at that stage. And one Friday night at the pub there, she met this American guy who was there on vacation. So one thing led to another, and of course, he came back. He lived in Portland, Oregon, at the time. But they exchanged life stories via email and so on. And a few months later, she was planning to go and vacation to the U.S. anyway. So she included both in dinners, they and his mother when he met her. His mom would say to him, If you don't want to lose this girl, you'd better ask her to marry you.
"And he did... so long story short, I visit her a few times from South Africa. Visited a few times here. And eventually she moved to Seattle. When her son was born, I came over to meet my new grandson. And that's when she said to me, Mom, what are you doing all on your own in South Africa? Why don't you come and live here in Seattle? I thought that was an excellent idea. Why not? That was 19 and a half years ago.
"If I had wanted to practice psychology here in the US, I would have had to go back to school, and I didn't feel like doing that. So I got a great job at the University of Washington in a specific department working with postgraduate students and guiding them, that sort of thing. And I was with UW for 15 years until I retired. And shortly after I retired, I had been living on my own in an apartment. And so after a while, my daughter said, Mom, maybe it's time for you to move into some sort of community, because she didn't think it was very safe for me to drive any longer.
"So she did find another place for me, where I moved in. And after I was there for one day, I said, 'You get me out of here. I can't stay here.' The complex was like buildings, with long rows of rooms in a particular corridor. And all the people in that particular section would sit and have dinner together. So every time you had a meal, it was with the same people. And the food, the food was brought in. You had no choice of food. If you didn't like what they served, you went hungry type of thing. So I said to her, 'I can't stay here. Find me another place.' So I was there for exactly two weeks, because she had done a lot of Internet searching.
"And she found this place, Chateau Pacific. She said, 'Mom, Let's go and have a look at Chateau Pacific. That can accommodate you.' And the minute we walked through that door at Chateau Pacific, I felt like, 'Oh, this is the place for me. Yes.' And everybody was so friendly, and they treated us to a meal and we saw that they had various choices. If you don't like what’s the special of the day, you have many alternatives to choose from.
"So we decided this is the place for me to stay. And I was here maybe three or four weeks, and somebody suggested that I would be the perfect person to be the president of our resident society. So I might as well... So I was voted in."
Judith adds, "When I first moved in here, I had signed up for three meals a day. But breakfast here is at 8:00 in the morning. So I had to set my alarm for 7:30 in order to get up and get dressed. I'd go down and have breakfast at 8:00. And then after a few weeks, I decided, Good Lord, I am retired. I do not have to get up with an alarm clock every morning anymore. So I canceled the breakfast thing. I get up around about, I don't know, 10:00 or so. I make myself something to eat and just check my email."
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.
Visit Chateau online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
This week we continue to learn what senior living is like from residents. Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast is joined by Jen, daughter of resident Ann at Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Washington. Jennifer McKassan is agency owner at Apples to Zebras Insurance in Lynnwood, so she works within the industry where people are investigating long term care planning.
Jen says, "People drive too long, or they keep their houses for too long, and they keep that responsibility for them for too long. And for whatever reason they do it, it ends up putting everybody involved into a place of of crisis. When it does come to the point where everybody involved realizes, oh, dear, it's time. And it was probably time about a year ago. I've seen families where they were dealing with degenerative illness, and they just didn't want to accept that that was the the next phase of life. When you own the timeline, you can control the timeline. And what I've seen was people who didn't do that ended up with a more expensive experience, a more traumatic experience, and a more damaged relationship with their families. I didn't want that with my mom. I wanted to be my mom's daughter all the way to the end of her life."
Jen described her mom's journey after retirement. She had been staying temporarily with Jen and her husband. "Mom had stopped driving, and she didn't know how to use paratransit yet. And my husband and I are both active professionals. We didn't have that flexibility in our days to really give mom the life that she wanted as a retired person. That active life, the 'hey, I want to go to a museum on a Wednesday' and I'm like, 'boy, would that be fun. I have to work. I have five appointments today,' and having to say, 'No, mom, I can't do that.' It takes its toll. And it turns you from a daughter to kind of a gatekeeper to fun. And I don't want to be the gatekeeper on my mom's fun."
But having those conversations is difficult. Suzanne pointed out, "We don't necessarily know how to have those conversations with dad or with mom, when the talking isn't matching what's happening. You're not fine, Dad, and you're not able to get up, you're a fall risk. You're going to have a bad fall. A lot of us as adult children don't know how to have the conversations or we're in a situation where we feel like it's not our place."
Jen replied, "It is our place. If you're the one picking up the pieces, it is your place. And you have an absolute right to say something about that, and almost an obligation, in my opinion, because it it's a hard conversation to have. It's a courageous conversation to have. And when we come at it from a place of love and that's what I did with my mom, I came at it from a place of love. I'm like, 'I don't want to be picking a place out of thin air just because they had a bed open and whatever we could afford that had a bed open and, you know, maybe this place will work and maybe it won't. I want to own this timeline. I want you to get to know people there. I want you to make friends there. I want you to feel like you belong there.'"
Jen adds, "There's a 70% chance that we will need assisted living or some form of assistive care in our later years. So if there's a 70% chance that something is going to happen, like it's going to rain, we're going to bring a raincoat, right? So when we when we talk about owning the timeline, we pick the place. We're going to get those services before we need them, move in when we're still independent, when we might not need what they have to offer in the greatest sense. But we pick the place we belong, so that we can make the friends. We can use our brain plasticity while we have it, to make friends and find new activities. Like Mom had never played video games like Wii Jeopardy before. I was like, Oh, this is fantastic. And Wii Bowling.
"Owning the timeline means that we accept that there's only a 30% chance that we won't need the kinds of services that are available readily and quickly from a trusted provider here at a retirement community like Chateau Pacific. So if we can get to a place where, when we need those services, it's not. 'Oh dear, Mom broke her hip. Now we have to hire a nurse or find something emergency-style, or somebody has got to take a month off of work to do all this work' — versus, 'Oh, dear, Mom broke her hip. Hey, could we get some help in her room? Do we need to kick in a care plan?' Different experience, very different conversation. Doesn't disrupt the life of the children that are adults in their prime-earning years. It doesn't disrupt the family by completely upending everything. It provides trusted care to the person."
Jen also says, "I think that the brain is a muscle. and when we don't use muscles, they atrophy. And when all we do is feed our muscles garbage like TV — with all love for all of the TV shows that are out there, they're not helping our brains stay active. They're not demanding critical thinking skills. They're not demanding that we stay active and engaged with our world. People who stay active engage with their worlds through those organic conversations with each other, through sharing their memories, through hanging out with their kids, through having drinks at happy hours, having dinner with different people every day, through having to remember names in the elevator. All those things are great exercises for helping keep the the neurons firing in the brain strong as long as humanly possible.
"Just walking to dinner, mom definitely had a difference in her stamina, even between living at our house ,where she walked from her bedroom to the living room to the kitchen. Now she's walking the hallways now, using those muscles. She's got to walk way longer to get to the to the dining hall. And just that amount of walking alone and going to and from the activities has been really good for her stamina and her motor skills."
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.
Visit Chateau online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
This week we share experiences and learn what it's like to be a resident in senior living. Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast is joined by Ann, a resident at Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Washington. In our next segment, Ann's daughter Jen joins the program.
Ann says, "Before my own personal investigation of senior living, my sister and I had been involved in finding a place for our parents, moving them from Southern California into the Vancouver, Washington area. We went to many, many places. One was obviously a converted motel, less than satisfactory. One was across the river in Portland, so if bridges ice up, we're stranded. We went into one place, and it was a high rise, and although they had communal areas on each floor, they were so little used that nobody had even turned on the lights."
Of her personal journey, Ann says, "[I wanted] to find another senior living place to try out, because the first one had been just a respite for medical reasons. The second had been very educational, and I liked it there a lot. But it was a relatively small community, less than 100 residents. And so I wanted to try something a little bit larger. ... [But] I found that it was limiting. If you've got a bus that holds ten people, there's only ten people who can go shopping. It's only one slot a week to go shopping in, so you've got to sign up for everything on the first of the month. I told them going in that it would be a short-term stay. And when I moved out of there, my children, bless their hearts, moved me [to Chateau Pacific]. Picked it up, all the furniture, over there, and so here I am. And I've been in Chateau Pacific now for about three months.
"You can sleep in as late as you want. You can go down and have breakfast, or if you want to have lunch or whatever, that you can make. I think I'm actually just a little bit young for senior living. I'm 75, but we've got residents who are 100. We have one who is 66. But whatever you need, whoever, whenever you need it, those things are available. ... And the dining staff, the waitstaff, know everybody's names."
Suzanne asks, "I'm hearing that you're connecting with other residents, and you feel included. How did that happen?"
Ann answers, "Well, for one thing, I'm not shy about saying, 'Hi, my name's Ann, what's yours? Please don't be offended, but I won't remember it next time because I don't remember anything till I am completely embarrassed by having not remembered.' So I find out what people's names are, and I like to talk to them and find out what they did in their working life, what their strengths are, and what their interests are. And all you have to do is just ask a question. What do you like most, or do you have children? It doesn't take anything terribly intrusive or nosy. It's just a question to start the conversation."
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.
Visit Chateau online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
If you want to age in place, or if you have parents that want to age in place, what are the best questions you should ask an aging-in-place specialist? Aging in Place specialist Paul Kocharhook, the CEO of Pathway Design & Construction, joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to share his advice for adult children that are helping their parents to plan to stay in their homes?
Paul says, "The word planning, I think, is the most important piece. Because when I get a phone call from a homeowner, or a child — saying, 'My parent is in the hospital. They won't let them come home until the home is safe for them to to live in.' — those are the hardest things for a contractor, to have to turn around and jump on and be able to make the space safe. So the more that you can plan ahead, the easier that potential transition might be in the future. Once a fall happens, and their hip is broken, you have less options."
Suzanne says, "Just because you see somebody that's got a certified aging in place designation on their card, doesn't necessarily mean they're the right person for you. Ask things like, how long have you been there? How many jobs have you done? What types of work? Who are your references? Do you have a portfolio of the types of things you've done? Those are all things that are absolutely valid, are they not?"
Paul answers, "Oh, 100%, yeah. For me, we've been really lucky to be able to win some amazing awards for aging in place and universal design. It's awesome to be able to have that recognition as a contractor, but also it's a recognition for the homeowner, and all of our trade partners that work on these jobs for us, because really it's a team. It's not just me. It's all of these people who come together to create this space for these homeowners."
How to find the right aging in place expert? Paul says, "I've asked this question a lot to my homeowners. When they contact us for aging in place, usually they have Googled 'aging in place.' Another term that gets used a lot is 'universal design.' And so I would start there. Also, I believe the NAHB [National Homebuilders Association] has a portal that you can go to, and look for aging in place.
Visit PathwayDC.com or call 206-937-4809 for more information. If you're in the Seattle area, mention Answers for Elders to get a free consultation. Paul will come out, check out your home, make sure that it is safe, and talk about different potential projects, whether for now or in the future.
National Homebuilders Association website
At Answers for Elders:
Mentioned in this episode:
Legacy Estate Planning
Legacy Estate Planning
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
Air quality for everyone is huge, even more so as we get older. Aging in Place specialist Paul Kocharhook, the CEO of Pathway Design & Construction, joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to talk about air quality, this other aspect of making a home safer. He also explains what it means for an expert to be designated as an Aging in Place specialist.
Paul says, "When I'm thinking about air quality, I'm thinking about what are we introducing into our home, and how do we minimize the impacts on us. Also, a lot of us are experiencing wildfires during the summer. All that smoke just bombards us. So how do we continue to live in our home in a safe space? So, reducing the impact of that smoke getting into the home, because a lot of our homes are leaky. So are there some ways for us to to manage that? If they are leaky, how do we manage them once it's inside of the home, or how we stop it at the exterior?
"It's like a glass of water. As we continue to age, we've been exposed to more chemicals over the years and that that glass just continues to fill up, and eventually it overflows. So how do we keep it at the level that it's currently at, trying so that we're minimizing future impact? Yeah, that makes sense."
About expertise in this area, Paul explains, "The Aging in Place specialist designation is given out through the NAHB, the National Homebuilders Association. This is a course that we've gone through. I think almost all of my employees have been through it now. But the idea is really introducing aging in place in three separate courses, and each course gets a little bit deeper into how we think about projects and deal with different medical issues that they might be experiencing.
Visit PathwayDC.com or call 206-937-4809 for more information. If you're in the Seattle area, mention Answers for Elders to get a free consultation. Paul will come out, check out your home, make sure that it is safe, and talk about different potential projects, whether for now or in the future.
National Homebuilders Association website
At Answers for Elders:
Mentioned in this episode:
Legacy Estate Planning
Legacy Estate Planning
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
People don't necessarily know what aging in place is, and what kind of simple changes can be most impactful to make our home safer for ourselves and for aging parents when they visit. Aging in Place specialist Paul Kocharhook, the CEO of Pathway Design & Construction, joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to share adjustments we can make to our homes, from DiY projects to more complex upgrades. Paul also talks about sustainability.
Regarding the simple changes, Paul says, "I would say adding handrails, like getting in and out of the house, adding a second handrail to the stairs. We have more control over one hand versus the other as we age, or we have some sort of medical condition, whether it's a stroke or something else. So what is your stronger side? As you're going down the stairs, maybe you have a handrail on the right-hand side, but going up maybe you don't don't have one. Well, let's add a handrail to the other side of the stairs. Just so you have the ability to go up and down safely on both sides. Sometimes that gets forgotten about, just having that safety measure in place.
"We talked a little bit about grab bars, bathroom spaces. Those are those are great in showers. Whether you're five years old or 105...
Suzanne said, "There's a surfacing that you can put over your existing tile."
Paul says, "It's a roll-on product. We clean your shower floor and then we roll the grip onto the floor. And it's super durable, and it helps immensely in bathroom spaces. We've even done it in walkways outside, we're a little concerned about slippery areas. We're even using it on stairs. If you've got wooden stairs in your home, just adding that because if you're walking in socks, those stairs can be just a little bit slippery."
Suzanne adds, "And it doesn't affect the the look of your tile at all. I actually use that product it in my own shower, because it was a little slippery when we first moved in. I have a shower mat, but the mat is not big enough. So we did get that product, and it was super easy. That's a DIY thing you could easily do."
Paul adds, "If you have an existing bathtub and slipping in that bathtub is a potential issue, this is a good alternative, to help buy you a little bit of time."
Suzanne asks, "You can convert a bathtub, pull the tub out and create a walk-in shower. That is not that's not a structural change for the most part, is it?"
Paul answers, "No, it's not structural at all. These units, we drop these in there. We make them, we can customize it. If you have a weird-sized bathtub, we can customize it to fit in the exact space that you have."
Visit PathwayDC.com or call 206-937-4809 for more information. If you're in the Seattle area, mention Answers for Elders to get a free consultation. Paul will come out, check out your home, make sure that it is safe, and talk about different potential projects, whether for now or in the future.
National Homebuilders Association website
At Answers for Elders:
Mentioned in this episode:
Chateau Retirement
Chateau Retirement
Legacy Estate Planning
Legacy Estate Planning
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