shed light on life

Eleanor
Godley

SOMEONE SENT me a little
poem some years ago.

I musi presume, judging by the
content, that it came to me because |
was beginning to show my age. It
bears a sketch of a little, old, rather
dried-up man, and reads:

First you crawl and then you
walk,

Eventually you learn to talk.

Pretty soon you start to stoop.

Growing old is pigeon poop.

it makes me laugh but I don’t

_ believe it for an instant. Growing old
is a complicated, but worthwhile,
adventure.

Oh, sure, if you're bed-ridden or
unable to communicate, or see to
read, of course there are all sorts of
horrid factors to persuade you to that
view, But if you're in reasonably
good health and have the use of your
faculties there are innumerable
rewards, private ones of course, for

66 Nothing seems
.| “impossible. New
- lenses are implanted
“in old, worn-out eyes,
- which seems like a
rebirth. 99

‘havirig achieved an accumulation of
ears, The “reasonably good health”
§ the stickler. We've nearly all of us
- “suffered some ailment in our lives,
medicine not having blossomed ,
early enough for our needs,
Marvellous strides in that science
haye been made in our lifetime, and

jothing seems impossible. New
‘lensés are implanted in old, wom- ~'
ut eyes, which seems like a rebirth. |

inangeable. ; ms
‘All manner of similar miracles
will come about; we believe that. :
a) why do I still have this

~wretched cough? I've been coughing

-for'd year now, exhausting myself ; =

and also my husband's patience. It's *,~

< Stephen Wong
Pharmacist .

_ CAPSULE
COMMENTS

Instilling eye drops.in children
can bea chore. Try the. “closed
‘eye” method, Lay the child down
-and close his eyes. Place a drop on
|) the inner corner of the eyelid then

“have the child open his eyes and
the drop should fall in. This

_works quite well with children of
all ages.

-Good advice: “Before you take it,
talk about is.” Our pharmacists
are always available to talk to you
about your medications.

_ DAVIES PHARMACY
. 1401 St. Georges 985-8771

Pu ee

a} vintage years

especially irritating to both of us
during the night, as well as at the
dinner table, and whilst I wash the
dishes, and as we go for a walk.

It was diagnosed months ago as a
minor asthma, not life-threatening
by any means, just endlessly boring

~ and exhausting, A gentleman acci-

.
veaaey

dentally met put me on to a sort of
- lozenge that was a big help — my

pockets have been full of them ever
since,

But in truth I'd rather get rid of it
altogether, it's very tiring sucking all
the time. My daughter was on the
phone one day when I was going.
full bore, and her father told her he'd
been trying to persuade me to the
doctor's office,

“For a cough?” she said, “Your
best bet is your pharmacist.
Pharmacists know far more about

_ remedies for that sort of thing than

doctors do. It's their job.”

Well. Is that so? Out of the
mouths of babes. But surely worth a
try. So off J went to Bob, who has
been pharmacing for us since the

~ fifties, when he was newly graduated

and acting as the back-up man occa-
sionally in the drugstore in the
Highlands, We moved about in the

_hext few years but found him again

eventually, not only full-fledged in
his qualifications but in charge of a
husky staff of his own. The
Northmount Pharmacy, he calls it,
and his computer has a line on all
the multiple pills and nostrums that
are required now to keep me vertical
and mobile in my old age.

No sooner had I described my
wretched condition than I was
offered a bottle of relief, from which
a teaspoonful each moming, fol-
lowed by the same each bed-time
would change my life.

It has, There’s not a peep out of
me in the night, now, a treat for both
of us.

And if ! do feel a need to cough
through the day I can usually defeat
it with just a gulp of water. It's true
relief, and is not taxing our doctor’s
time. We could use that route more
often to our advantage, we old folks.

We're very aware of occasional
pointed references to the costs of our
medical plan and the need to cut
back. It would be a certain benefit
were we to think twice before call-
ing on our medical practitioners, and
say, you don’t need an appointment
to go see your druggist.

Certainly there are times when
that won't suffice — your druggist’s
certificates have certain limits. But
for a fot of daily basic medical help
it is very reasonable to enquire first
whether there is some over-the-

counter remedy that will restore you.

And say, the disclosure in fast
Sunday’s North Shere News of an
apparent over-emphasis on sedatives
for us old folks on the North Shore
is woubling. Giving out prescriptions
for a packet of sleeping pills to a full
third of us seems rather a wholesale
way of keeping a lot of us quiet,
rather than helping us get through
the years.

Ack. Don't feel | you may bea
nuisance.

It’s your health, your life. Ask.

PETER BARKER

DENTURIST
21 Years Experience

231 LONSDALE AVE., |
NORTH VANCOUVER |

986-8515

NORTH SHORE |

UNITARIAN CHURCH

370 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver, B.C. V7S 1H3. Phone: 926-1621

A Adult Religious Education

E Opportunifies
mm + Wi

Parents as Social justice ~~
Educators

@ Tai ChiChih

“Wednesdays,

fer 1996 +

Tuesdays, 7:30pm
February 20 - March 26

Beginners’ class: 7:30-8:30pm
Intermediate class: 6:15-7:15pm
January 17 - March 20

| Meditation Group

Tuesdays, 7:30pm-9:00pm

January 9 ~ ongoing:

B Reike Training

“February 23, 7:00pm _

February 24, 1:00pm |
February 25, 1 :00pm

For more information or to register for any of
these classes, call the

North Shore Unitarian Church ~ 926-1621

Monday = ray 9: O0am- I: cl

| 129322.

_sunday, January 14, +, 196 -

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178756

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