Sunday, December 1, 1991 - North Shore News - 33

A lady of principle and humanity

Jean Greenwood receives the Brock House Senior of the Year award

WHEN YOU’RE 84, what
do you think you’ll be up
to?

Much?

Maybe a round of executive
golf, en? Or a daily consticutional,
say to the corner and back?
Maybe a few laps in the pool be-
fore breakfast, or a fast getaway
on the stationary bike?

Not a iot of cross-country ski-
ing, I dare say, and forget the
coast-to-coast automobile adven-
tures.

Well, Joan Greenwood’s 85,
and she’s gct a very different phi-
losophy. ‘‘Don’t give up any of
your activities,’ she says, ‘‘Not
even on one occasion.’’

She thinks that’s the beginning
of the downhil! push.

By being her best example, she’s
made her point.

This indomitable woman has
just received the distinction of the
Brock House Senior of the Year
award. There was a grand party to
provide the frame for the pres-
entation of 10,000 tax-free dollars,
and to give us a chance to ap-
plaud the accomplishments, both
dogged and inspirational, of this
astonishing woman.

The pasty was held in the front
toom of the Hong Kong Bank,

the part called the atrium. Yes,
right on Georgia Street, (the pen-
dulum was suspended temporarily,
if you get me), just like something
you'd see in Vanity Fair, all the
people including the Lieutenant-
Governor and his lady, came to
eat and drink and pay their
respects.

A piper with sturdy fegs and
eclectic tastes led the parade for
the round-up call, (he included
Chase Me Charlie in this reper-
toire, to my especial delight), and
no one tried to staunch the flow
of wine and good spirits.

Certainly if anyone deserves this
annual honor it is Joan Green-
wood. She's a real woman of
parts. She and her husband lived
over here in the early days, when
the trolley was stil] running up
Pemberton way.

Later she spent several years in
West Vancouver and was a very
active member of the local council
(now you remember her name).
Ske always spoke her mind, still
does, and Don Lanskail, mayor
for many years, was often her
adversary.

He was one of those who
spoke, complimenting her on her
personal code and her vigorous
defence of it.

She lives now in Hope, a small
town which has in no way nar-

CAPILANG: SUSPENSION BRIDGE
EATONS : Park: Royal

Eleanor

THE VINTAGE YEARS

rowed her perspectives on what is
wrong in the world and how she
ean help right it.

Joan is first a communicator,
and therefore understands its
values. She writes, for her own
pleasure and for publication, and
she draws and paints, similarly.
She uses both these outlets when
she is spending isolated days in
B.C.’s massive park reserves, and
is aware of the self-orientation
and comfort derived from any

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kind of self-expression,

This awareness has persuaded
her how vitally important com-
munication is to people, in any
form, and she applies this
awareness to releasing people im-
prisoned by their own inade-
quacies. People as diverse as pris-
oners of the state, those who are
blind, and immigrants locked out
with only their foreign tongue.

To this end she has done out-
standing work in helping ESL
students in the Fraser Valley Col-
lege, opening their way to entering
fully into Canadian life.

She has spent hours in the
Mountain Prison of Agassiz,
breaking down barriers for men
who can neither write nor read.

Her work with the CNIB led to
learning Braille in order to
transcribe books for the blind.
And she contributes to the
horizons of the visually impaired
by reading stories into the Talking
Books program.

A big part of both work and
pleasure, (she’s a loner, she says),
is in her role as an ecological
warden with the B.C. Ministry of
Parks. She drives herself and her
provisions, prepared to spend sev-
eral days in Wells Gray Park, a
vast area north of Kamloops, in a
tent with a canoe and an open
fire. Same in Tweedsmuir South,

9 =

in the beautiful Chilcotin.

Last year, when she was only
84, she was helicoptered into the
Mt. Assiniboine area on our
border with Alberta, and spent
her duty time there in an actual
cabin, with propane laid on. At
6,000 feet a tent won't do, you
see.

Her health appears robust —
she’s lean and keen and her eyes
sparkle with mirth. She says it’s
luck and good genes, but it’s part-
ly, one thinks, the spartan sort of
life she lives on these duty trips.

As she says, you can’t project
dinners of roast beef, and
breakfasts of bacon and eggs
when everything has to be carried
in and out. ‘One thinks,’’ she
says, ‘‘In terms of porridge.”’

It tickled her, at the elegant
dinner-party, that His Honor the
Lieutenant-Governor should read
her needs so well. She was finding
her generous helping of fine beef
a bit daunting, but the word
‘waste’ isn’t in her lexicon so she
soldiered on.

She confided to her neighbor
that she rued leaving it, so he,
who can command a number of
things, ordered up a dogrie-bag
for her. He a man of perspicacity
and finesse, she a lady of principle
and humanity.

RS a REDE SE PT PTE