y, Febru

5, 1693 - North Shore News -

">" there’ are

oe ¢
HUGHES’ VIEWS

THEY SAY that to under-
stand the son you should
look to the father.

Apocryphal or not, I’ve had

- occasion during my search for
’ self-understanding to reflect upon
. my own father, and to wonder if
indeed echoes of his
character mirrored in mine.
if.so, J can only count myself
-,,among those blessed by fate, and

‘move along in life knowing that I °

have been provided with at least
some tools worthy of both respec
_ and honor ‘ ’
‘«,’°" Yet that'same fate, governing us

as it does with such a random: ar-

on aging: fate sneaks up on

ray of both glurious joy and hor-
rible pain, has been less than kind
to that man who goes before me.

For well over a decade now, age
has ravaged him; not quickly or
kindly, with one swift blow of its
scythe, but with a slow cruelty
that is a torture to witness.

P.G. Wodehouse, writing as he
always did with a_ delightful
whimsy, nevertheless struck a
serious. chord when he wrote,
“Just when a fellow is feeling
particularly braced with things ...
Fate sneaks up with a bit of lead
piping.”

And so it was with my father.

He had just retired from a life-
time’s work in the towboat in-
dustry, reaching the point, finally,
where his winter’s tale could have
been a soft and gentle story.

It was not to be. First came the
multiple-bypass operation, a pro-
cess meant to improve the quality
of his life, but which, for
whatever reason, had the opposite
effect. .

What it did was extend his ex-
istence, and whether that exten-
sion was worth the price, only he
can tell,

Each year, it seemed, brought
its own smal! death. First came
the cane. Then the walker. His

’ world, previously defined by such

broad horizons, was shrinking by
degrees.

Finally his health deteriorated
to the point where he and my

Seniors’ one-stop line
| primarily set up for —
| information purposes

Dear Editor: | ae

A wish’ to ‘Yespond. to Eleanor
‘Godley’s‘ recent article. in which
‘she refers. to the One-Stop
‘Seniors’ Information Line . (983-

3303). . Le

“She” states’ that ‘it consists of

“your calling’: to’. describe — your
“emergency and ‘ask which agency
to. start. with, whereupon ‘another
‘number is given so that-you must
i” describe your. problem all,. over
tH

“ "We vare. not. primarily. an

emergency service and should such.

“a scenario occur, we would make
the necessary calls on the caller’s
‘behalf.
.! Fos..the most part, we-are an
information . resource service and

“2, answer. ‘inquiries’ directly or put
people. in. touch with -an ap-
propriate agency. ; :

“We. generally. don’t contact

“agencies on behalf of . seniors
_ because: we want, to ensure that

. call-back system
. seniors who initiate calls do hear .
‘back froni‘us. ;

the decision-making is left’in the
hands of the caller and that con-
fidentiality is maintained. . ;

Godley suggests: ‘What. you
want, really, is for someone to
call you, to get an-idea of your

‘situation and to organize rescue.””

Until the caller’ contacts us, we
are unaware that there is a prob-
lem: However, we do have a
place and most

Where’ appropriate, we offer
further ‘assistance and this often
happens when there is a

‘deteriorating health problem.

Concerning our hours, in the
eight months of operation to date,
our answering service has shown
that very. few calls are received:
prior to 10 a.m. and after 3 p.m.

Caroline M. Jackson, publicist
One-Stop Seniors’ Information
Line

| Say it ain't so, David!

i

“Dear Editor: 0°.

[e-J.:1 find it hard to believe that
‘David Schreck: really said: what’ «
-was' reported on page three of
the North Shore News on Jan.

ge ane.
| He is supposed to have said,
“».“Do we. really want 'govern-

ments: ‘Uoing . what‘ is popular

rather than what is right?”’ ;
“Hf She were ‘to say ‘such a
thing,: he’ would be implying
that “the -current'- government
‘has: 2. monopoly. on morality.
..The populace would. be moral

idiots who must be led by the

saintly”’ politicians.
believe “that the. NDP

fought Vander Zalm’s. anti-
abortion stand by saying that

-he was ‘imposing his morality

on the masses and thereby ig-
noring the wil! of the people.

- Obviously they would now
be implying that they are the
ones’ who have a direct line to
God which ordinary people d
not. . ‘

Do politicians know what is .

moral or ‘‘what is right’’ better
than the rest- of us? Surely
Schreck ‘could not have. been
that arrogant!

D. Griffiths
North Vancouver

the
they
more

mother moved away from
coast to Penticton where
could be watched over
carefully by my sister.

The move brought no release.

He began to have mini-strokes
— “little flippy things,” he called
them.

The walker was replaced by the
wheelchair, and then that too
became too much for him to han-
dle, and he was signed in to Pen-
ticton Regional Hospital.

Today his world is defined by
the four walls of his room in the
hospital’s extended care wing.

The pictures on those walls ~
of old friends and old times —
help-to remind him of fragments
of his past that now exist only in
the misty corners of his memory.

Sull, be had, at least, those
reminders. He used to entertaia us
all with tales of the oid days on
the tugs, and his eyes would fill
with the simple. pleasure of
remembrance. ot

Some time during Christmas, he
told my sister that he no longer
wanted to talk about those times.

64 His world, previously defined by
such broad horizons, was shrinking
by degrees. 37

“That part of my life is over,”’
he said, and we all knew yet
another piece of him had been
wrenched away.

He phoned me from his room
the other day, his voice a shaky
whisper, his responses 10 my ques-
tions painfully delayed, as if even
thought now entailed too long and
tedious a journey.

There was in his voice some
other, more subtle, thing — a
deep sadness, and perhaps an
unspoken yet resounding plea. *

He wanted, | believe, to talk to
someone who knew him as he
once was, and not as the burden
he saw reflected in the eyes of the
murses who now must attend to.

bek

nearly all his bodily functions.

We are, to some extent, defined
by those around us; by the
cumulative effect of a lifetime of
impressions we instil in ‘those
closest to us.

To me, my father is warmth,
wisdom, humor and dignity.
These are the things he is, not

~ was, and they are the icons of his

character worth preserving as his
sole definition.

They will be preserved in my
memory. To me, and to all those
who. really know my: father, this

comes as no hardship.

Fate, for all its misery, can also
ind.

Notice how beth taxes and the deficit }

still arent goi

Rid Lonsdale of polluting monsters:

these noisy..and polluting .

Dear Editor: ie

Counting sheep was the. most
effective way for me to get back
to sleep after being woken up by
some noise in the early morning.

That was in‘rural Southern An-
dalusia where I lived until the late
summer of 1991... © |

There were only three kinds of
noises in’ the early) morning: the
distant barking of dogs, the racket
made by the sparrows: as soon as
the first sun rays: hit the patio

‘roof where they nested, and the

steady drumming of the fishing
boats’ diesel engines on their way
from the tiny port of Carrucha to
a day’s work off the African
coast. a

The fatter was a passing noise
which reached its .crescendo at

nm

as our popular;

up as fast

7:13 a.m. sharp.. The other two
noises fitted in with nature and
did not interfere with counting
sheep. - | a

Unfortunately, that is. not the
case with the. buses going up the
steep incline of Lonsdale — from
Esplanade to about 12th Street —
Starting at 6 a.m., give or take 30
minutes, So ‘

The noise of the combustion
engines, first stopping and then
trying to get going aguin, is like
an angry growl. fa
_ Instead of counting sheep I find
myself worrying about feeding -
and watching them, especially the
little lambs. There is ‘no hope to
get back to sleep. : :

I would, therefore, like to-sug-
gest that your excellent newspaper
use its influence with BC Transit

ereet

monsters.
’ Hydro-electricity is cheap: and
readily available in B.C, Wouldn’t’
it be nice'to have ‘quiet, efficient,

_won-polluting electric: trotley buses
- instead? eee

~ | could then go back to coun-:
ting sheep. ‘Alternatively, I. may
have ‘to stop ‘reading long past -
midnight and start getting up with
the buses, so to'speak.). 25 68
Please don’t get me wrong; I
love, living in beautiful, civilized
Vancouver.and would never want
to go back to sloppy Spain, but
even. the best places can: be im-
proved, :

-R. Clode :
‘ North Vancouver

ote TESS