io 46 ~ Sunday, March 31. 1991 - North Shore News Many fronts in the attack on the age barrier YOU KNOW, one of these days there won’t be all these frail, helpless aged folks to plan for. When you look around at people now in their seventies and eighties, you find a big majority of them being very active, very live- ly-minded, very articulate. We've had the benefits our parents and grandparents missed — more basic formal education, certainly, but also more _ life education. We’ve been somewhere else. Also, we've learned about stress and alcohol and tabacco and the regular exercise of our faculties as well as our bodies as our forbears never did. And not on- ly are we living longer, we're liv- ing longer joyfully. The world wil! be astonished by our benign wisdom and applaud our serenity. Of course there'll still be disease to reckon with, but even there the information pile is deepening, and the old body is being treated to better care and better wnder- standing. I’m very optimistic that what we call ‘‘care-giving,’’ per- sonal or institutional, will visibly shrink. Much of this will come about through the continuing emancipa- tion of women. Women born into the Victorian years, into the Ed- wardian years, some still amongst us, even a lot of King George's bunch, married in their teens, sketchily-schooled virgins, taking their identity through their hus- bands all their lives. Dancers and ‘‘artistes’? made careers for ‘themselves, and deci- sions likewise, but the bulk of women of those generations were helplessly home-oriented. : Thus, when widowed, they knew absolutely nothing about in- come and outgo, about taxes and water bills, about mortgages and annuities and whom to ask. And should their husbands survive in chronic illness, they were equally ignorant of help available. Fred Pope, from Lions Bay, will lose his job when this vision of enlightenment comes to pass, and he will take that loss as <¢ triumph. Fred Pope is our new member of the Provincial Seniors Advisory Council, and it would be a sign ol success to him to be needed nc fonger. He’s the kind of man you would choose for this sort oi panel if you were in charge; he’s a citizen of the world, having spent 35 years with Air Canada, and he's got all his pores open. He’s cheerful, friendly, op- timistic, alert, hoping to be as in- volved as he can be with the prob- lems and triumphs of the senior population on the North Shore. This council has been a fact since it was established in 1989 as p2rt of the Ministry of Health, and has three objectives: to advise the minister about what’s happen- ing, t© all the organizations bent on providing service to us. The committee is composed of people from ail parts of the pro- vince. and from a variety of cunures, all with demonstrated in- terest in community issues. Fred has been a familiar with a number of service groups on our shore, including the Nerth Shore Counselling Centre. He and Sheila Jones, long known as the mover and shaker at West Vancouver Seniors Centre, share the respon- sibility for all us North Shore el- ders, When Fred came to visit with me, | had a success story for him — two, actually, both of which gave him a fot of pleasure. The first was about the neat job of cooperation, municipal and otherwise, that brought into being the much-needed new — seniors meeting-place in Lincoln Gardens. The other was a bunch of young people who are learning to handle the generation gap. The meeting-place was built primarily for the North Shore Volunteers who combined for the telicf of people living in care facil- ities. This Organization has a pret- ty long history of offering enter- tainment and a chance for socialization and change of scene to folks in places like Inglewood Hospital and the Kiwanis establishments and Cedar View. There are 11 such on the North Shore. For most of their very ac- tive years the volunteer workers had a makeshift hidey-hole on Marine Drive, in which to keep their tools and records. So when the Buron Group wanted to put up a cluster of apartments at Marine and 22nd Street, West Vancouver council made a dicker with them. There was already established a proviso regarding this block, that its development must include some community-usefulness. A non- profit organization such as North Shore Volunteers certainly quali- ONE DAY ONLY TUESDAY One day only, Tuesday April 2, 1991, all Seniors 65 years of a Eleanor THE VINTAGE YEARS fied, sa the machinery for better quarters for them was put in train, The upshot is that there is a commodious working-meeting area, ground level, approached by a forgiving slope for wheelchairs. It boasts a small kitchen are., lavatory, and crafts-and-storage space. It is well used. People are brought by Handidart, and others come on their own, sometimes with spouses, for bridge and woodworking and hobby stuff or just visiting, with cookies. And it gives their executive a neat in-house work place as well. The fact that the North Shore Caregivers are now using these premises once a week for respite is to me a great example of the desirable mingling and coo- perating of agencies bent on the same outcome, which is improving the quality of life for our vintage years. The Care-Giver group had been since inception confined to North Vancouver, but could see a like need in the neighbor municipality, so they're delighted to be able to share this pleasant facility on a ge or over will receive 10% off theirs food order, weekly Wednesdays. The other thing that brought a light to Mr. Pope’s eye was the news about the ‘Challenge Pro- gram’? at West Van Secondary Schools. This brings able and gifted students, both girls and boys, to orientation sessions that teach the proper handling of a wheelchair, how to communicate with the elderly, how to be forbearing of the difference in years and backgrounds. How to enjoy one another, in short. By being helpful, the young may get a little glimmer of the possibilities on generational rela- tionships. Once these kids have ‘‘sraduated’’ from the program, they have regular duties in the various local elderly staging-areas. This seems to be the sort of at- tack on the age barriers that will bring all of us future dividends of grace and understanding. Think how lucky we are. not including tobacco or pharmacy. (We may ask for proof of age) Seniors day in effect at all Lower Mainland Safeway, Safeway Superstores, Woodward's World of Food and Someplace Special stores. We reserve the: right to limit quontities. 10% off not valid with any other coupon or discount offer.