HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-11-23, Page 7being middled -aged, when
Presto, the government starts
mailing you old age security
cheques. And so it goes.
One of the problems of ag-
ing is that we have less con-
trol over change. No matter
how fit we may try to keep our
bodies, our health patterns do
shift. Limbs, once limber,
become stiff, energy flags,
eyesight and hearing may
fade, and memories falter.
Circumstances may even de-
mand we leave our dear place
of abode to live somewhere
that is strange and un-
familiar. All these alterations
make great demands on us
and come at a time when we
are feeling vulnerable and
weak. It's not easy, and it's
not much wonder older people
often feel threatened.
Is there a secret in meeting
the changes that eomP into
our lives? Well, I once asked
a wonderfully bright 85 -year-
old what helped her to grow
old so beautifully, so softly,
despite many eruptions in her
life. After she thought a mo-
ment, she replied, "Well, 1
always tried to be prepared
for change. I knew my life
wouldn't always remain the
same...it might get better, or
it might get worse. And when
it did change, 1 tried not to
fight it, to flow with it and ac-
cept it as best I could."
So, if you're having the
same trouble I am with an old
photograph, I guess we both
better admit we don't look
like that anymore, and accept
the fact we may even look a
lot worse, before the game is
over.
Nevertheless, the good
news is we're still the same,
young, beautiful unwrinkled
people inside. That's how it
seems to me, anyway.
PREPARING EXHIBIT — Elsie Witteven, Doris Bailey and Cynthia Hazelwood prepare
the Kirkton No. 3 club exhibit at Saturday's Perth 4-H Achievement Day at Kirkton.
ADVANCED HONOURS — Perth Home Economist Nancy Ross presents Advanced
Honours certificates at Saturday's 4-H Achievement Day at Kirkton to Doris Bailey
and Cheryl Brine. T -A photo
Ernest Dow tells
of work in Africc,
Illy MIS. J. TIMPLIMAN
Stoffo
Members and friends of
Hibbert United Church
Women, gathered in the
Family Life Centre Thursday
evening, to hear Mr. Ernest
Dow, of Emmanuel College,
Toronto, speak about the two
years he and his family
recently spent in Nigeria and
the Congo, Africa.
The meeting began with a
period of Devotions, led by
Mrs. Russell Miller and Mrs.
Harold Pethick, with Mrs.
Murray Christie at the piano.
Mrs. Miller welcomed Ernest
who told something about his
work with the Christian Blind
Mission in these two loca-
tions, illustrating his talk with
excellent slides.
He told of how he had been
concerned with teaching blind
Africans how to develop their
food growing abilities,
thereby raisings their own
personal sense of worth as
well as their ability to be
more independent. His pic-
tures helped to give his
listeners some ideas of the
rewards and problems of the
life of a missionary and his
family.
Suitable thanks were made
to Ernest and all were invited
to share coffee and dainties
provided by Mrs. Robert
McCaughey, Mrs. Ross
McPhail and Mrs. Lorne
McKinnon.
A business meeting,
chaired by Mrs. Pethick dealt
with the donation to Alma Col-
lege, poinsettias and birthday
cake for the church at
Christmas and a reminder for
all to take their donations of
good used clothing to one of
the various receivers since no
bale is to be packed at the
church this year.
A report of the nominating
committee for the coming
year was made and discus-
sion as to a official board
representative.
Ten ladies and their
leaders, Mrs. Carter Kerslake
and Mrs. Jack Burchill, were
present at the second meeting
of the course on " Rug
Braiding, held at the home of
Mrs. Burchill on Wednesday
afternoon.
The leaders showed
everyone how to finish off
their trivets by tapering the
braids. A refresher meeting
will be held pior to the sum-
mary day in February.
ASP
�ntrolling the .changes
A ew friend of mine,
ng old photo of me tak
10 years a , pronounc
ed i no,unclain terms
"•C 't see any resemblanc
to ou, at all."
"What's the matter w' h
u?" I bridled, snatc g it
om her hand. "Ariy e can
to the hard-nosed, com-
petative world to hack out
your living. You struggle and
struggle to become a good
parent and just when you
begin to think you're meeting
with some success, the
children are gone. You think
you've finally got the hang of
It seems
to me...
by Gwyn Whilsmith
see that's a picture of me."
"No", she insisted I
thought rather rudely), "can't
see you there one bit."
I took a closer look.
Well...maybe I had changed,
just a smidge.
It is pretty obvious that my
dark brown hair is now most-
ly grey; that my weight is up,
say 20 pounds. I have to ad-
mit, also, that my muscles,
once as taut as fiddle strings,
are sagging sadly. And worst
of all, those charming, pro-
vocative laugh lines are tur-
ning into plain old wrinkles.
"Perhaps," I admitted
grudgingly, as I pushed the
photo under a pile of old
newspapers on the table,
"Perhaps, I have changed."
I felt sad.
We all hate change of any.
kind...especially as we grow .
older. "Why can't things stay
the same as they always
were?" we cry. "Why must
they always change?"
The old ways are so good,
so comfortable, so rational,
while the new are so silly, so
startling and sometimes,
downright frightening. If
there must be change. we
argue, let it not interfere with
my comfort, my sense of well-
being.
We sometimes view change
like my tow -haired grandson,
Duncan, who was visiting all
by himself a few summers
ago, when he was five. Meal
after Meal he complained
about the food. "Mummy's
Chili tastes a lot better than
this," he'd whine. Or, turning
up his sun -burned nose at a
macaroni salad' he'd pout,
"Mummy never makes this
junk".
After a couple of days, feel-
ing my blood pressure moun-
ting to dangerous heights, I
sat him down and spoke stern-
ly, "Listen Duncan, part of
holidaying is changing your
food; if you didn't want
change you should have
stayed home."
Fixing me with his shiny
blue eyes, he retorted
decisively, "Grandma, I
came here to change my peo-
ple, not my food."
Many of us are like Dun-
can.. we want to control this
matter of change, to let it go
just as far as we're comfor-
table with it. Unfortunately.
life often doesn't deal out its
variations like that.
However, it does try to
educate us, as we go along, by
• not letting us get too settled in
our ways, I'm sure you know
what I mean. Just when
you've got to like the life of a
student, you are thrust nut in -
MASTER IN ENGLISH --
The degree of Master of
Arts in English was confer-
red upon Eleanor W.
Salmon at the University
of Western Ontario on Oc-
tober 27, 1983. Eleanor is
the daughter of Esther E.
Salmon and the late W.
Clifford Salmon. At pre-
sent, Eleanor is engaged
in studies leading toward
an M.A. in Religious
Studies at the School of
Graduate Studies of the
University of Toronto. She
is a student with the Cen-
tre for Religious Studies
and the Toronto School of
Theology.
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November 23, Page 7
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