MS PUERTO RICO SENIOR AMERICA 2016,
IRENE BAZAN WALLER

CONGRATULATIONS to Irene Bazan Waller, Ms. Puerto Rico 2016!

Irene Bazan Waller was born and raised in Brazil, in a culture where the elders are revered. She was the Portuguese interpreter for the Brazilian Soccer Team during the World Cup Soccer games held at the Michigan Silverdome in 1994. She has been employed at the Department of Health and Human Services for over 41 years and is currently the Director of Lapeer, Huron and Tuscola counties. She intends to work as long as she is able as she enjoys her job and believes in the commitment to serve the people in her communities and feels that she has much more to contribute. Since celebrating her 66th birthday, she has been enjoying her family and especially her husband who has been a wonderful support while she pursued her Master’s Degree in Business Administration at Wayne State University, and excelling in her career. Irene has two sons from her husband’s previous marriage and enjoys spending time with their four grandchildren. She believes that her zest for life helped her combat colon cancer in 2011 and feels that aging is a special time in our lives. Irene feels that a senior woman is not necessarily senior due to age but how she feels about life and how she applies the years of experience to continue growing and helping others in achieving success.

Her husband Wayne believes she is very talented and the idea on how to present her artstic talent which includes painting, drawing original Christmas Cards, sewing, and other creative projects, came from her 13 year old granddaughter who shared her power point presentation she submitted for school. Irene was so impressed that she took photographs of some of her own art work and produced a power point presentation depicting her many talents.

When earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, Irene wrote a story about her Mom and her ability to defy adversity when she was torn from her family at the age of 15 by the Nazi who invaded Poland during World War II and forced her to be a slave laborer for a Gestapo officer in Germany. The story “Echoes from the Past: The Story of Janina” won the Otto Feinstein Award of Excellence in Writing from Wayne State University. Irene’s mother has been gone for many years but always remains in her heart and is her role model and inspiration.