Take a good look at Kate Cefolia Miller and you can tell she has "pizzazz." From her stylish, vibrantly colored outfits to a sprinkling of glitter in her dark, curly hair, Miller's daily routine is centered around that key word, pizzazz. So it's no surprise that her first book is titled, Pizzazz: A Plan for Aging with Grace and Style.

While a geriatric social worker for 29 years, Miller found that a self-help book was not readily available to cover the issues of aging. What Miller wanted for her patients should be written in a format that anyone could read easily and quickly. During her years working for St. Luke's Health System, she had collected thoughts "about the things people don't want to think about as they age."

She explored the idea of writing the book she wanted for her patients, while examining her own thoughts and feelings about aging. After she began writing, Miller discovered that aging topics featured heavily in her life: She was dealing with geriatric patients through her work in home health care, and her mother's advancing age was becoming more and more a concern.

"Just six days after the book was published, my mother had a stroke," Miller recalled. "I was so happy that she had the chance to read the book before that happened."

Her mother, to whom the book is dedicated, lives in a nursing home in New Orleans. Miller visits as often as her schedule allows, and enjoys performing for her mother and the other residents by singing and playing her guitar.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Miller came to the Kansas City area during her years as a nun with the Daughters of Charity order. She joined the order after completing high school and immediately began working with geriatric patients. When she left the religious order, she attended college with a focus on continuing her earlier work.

Marriage and two daughters followed, and Miller juggled being a wife, mother, and full-time social worker. For 19 years she has lived on the same Overland Park cul-de-sac, where her kids' swing set still sits, waiting for grandchildren. (At 66, Miller says she is ready to begin that new chapter of her life.)

The now-single Miller began her book-writing project in earnest when her husband expressed doubts that she would ever accomplish it. When the completed manuscript was turned down by several publishers, she found a Web-based self-publishing company. Miller admits, "I haven't really tried to market the book. Mostly I'll order several copies myself and pass it on to clients who are interested."

Ideally, Miller would like to have the book available during workshops about aging. With large numbers of baby boomers now entering their senior years, she'd like to develop the idea of working with several agencies, focusing on what the next generation needs to prepare for aging.

Although she's at the age when many would retire from work, Miller works full time, meeting with patients throughout the metro, helping them identify the services they need to continue living at home. She looks into the resources they have, such as family members who can assist with caregiving. While counseling caregivers, she identifies what services they need to give high-quality care. Often she suggests that it may be time to leave the home and enter an assisted-living facility.

"No one wants to go to a nursing home," Miller said, "but it is the attitude that we approach these issues with that makes the experience what it is."

Miller has begun attending classes at UMKC to obtain a master's degree, which will allow her to become her own supervisor and work at her own pace once she's ready to make the transition from full-time to part-time employment. As a student, Miller remarks, "Sometimes I just walk around campus and smile at the thought that I am really there. I enjoy watching the young people and being around them. It has been such an expansive experience."

Miller is working on another book, an introspection on approaching older age. A music CD of songs she has written and performs on her guitar is an ongoing project, part of the spiritual journey that has taken her from Catholicism to Buddhism.

"In my Buddhist practice, I have learned that there is nothing good or bad about pain and aging," Miller said. "I like to help people soften into the changes in their body—go with the flow, so to speak."

And with Miller's help, people will also age with grace and style.

Pizzazz: A Plan for Aging with Grace and Style is available at www.lulu.com as a download or paperback.