Why a Retirement Community?
Are you are no longer enjoying cooking? Not eating properly? Or maybe you’re lonely and having a hard time getting out of your home to visit. Are you feeling isolated…or bored? As a ‘tour guide’ for a seniors’ home, I find that many people have at least one of the above concerns. Another big concern for some people reaching the age where they are considering a down size is what seniors homes used to look like. They are remembering the facilities that used to care for their own grandparents or parents. Thankfully we have come a long way and there really is very little, if any,...
Read MoreAn Accidental Pilgrimage
Rose Spit was on our list of adventures, and we were running out of time. A few days before, we were blessed to have been two, of a dozen hearty souls who shared a zodiac expedition through Gwaii Hanaas to the site of Sgang Gwaay. But that is a story for another day. My traveling companion, and sister, and I had been asking around Massett for a couple of days, hoping to find a ride out to the spit. There were a few possibilities, but nothing actually firmed up. We were told that Rose Spit was a 15 km return walk. We could see it in the distance. How hard could it be? We would be challenged,...
Read MoreVancouver Island, 1941
There were four crockery barrels on our back porch. I was four years old. We all had jobs. My job was to get things from the crocks. One held eggs preserved in water-glass; one was filled with oolichans (eels) in salt; one, my mother’s concoction of lye, oil and I don’t know what, which was the soap used for dishes, the floor, the laundry, the dog and our Saturday night baths in the tin wash tub; and one, goose grease, the salve of all bad things from cut fingers to leg-aches and whooping cough. When I see an episode of the TV show, “Survivor,” featuring people touching or...
Read MoreMainland judge aghast at lack of jails for women on Island
Here is yet another example of the inhuman manner that the provincial government treats women and young people to fuel it’s myopic goal of balanced budgets, no matter what the human costs may be. They are completely devoid of caring and compassion to those who are most in need. Trish SummerhayesOwner/Publisher of Island Woman. The article below which was published recently in the Times/Colonist A Vancouver-based B.C. Supreme Court justice was incredulous Tuesday upon hearing of the lack of jail facilities for women on Vancouver Island. “There must be some...
Read MoreYour Flashlight
Spring is with us and the days are brighter. This makes me think of a poem that I recently wrote called “Your Flashlight”. I performed it at the Spiral Café in Victoria, and you can check it out on You Tube if you like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_FqK0zIDc I am thrilled to announce that I have been writing with Island Woman Magazine for nearly two years now. Whenever I meet a new audience, I begin in a safe and easygoing manner, and then I begin to unleash myself more and more. It occurred to me, a few weeks ago, that I have yet to fully unleash, or even step it up a...
Read MoreWonder at the Choices
Have you ever wondered at the choices you’ve made? Not judged them, condemned them or blamed yourself for them but simply wondered? Have you ever stepped out of your judgement and simply wondered at the choices you’ve made? Has it ever occurred to you to say to yourself…”I wonder why I choose to do that?” or “I wonder why I choose that path or said those words?” And if you were to allow yourself to simply wonder, how do you think you might feel about your choices? You could open yourself up to possible reasons for your choices; you could allow the bigger picture of your life...
Read MoreB.C. Seniors Advocate
B.C. Seniors Advocate is reinforcing the need for seniors in the province to file tax returns, even if they think they do not make enough income to file. “There are many subsidies available to seniors that are based on income tax information,” said Isobel Mackenzie. “If seniors don’t file their taxes, low-income seniors in particular may be giving up opportunities to access subsidies which can make significant differences to their lives.” The importance of filing taxes was highlighted in a recent case where the Federal Government found that 83,000 Canadian seniors, 13,000 of them in...
Read MoreUrine and Grass Scalding
Urine. Some veterinarians call it “liquid gold” because it has incalculable value in determining a dog’s health status. However, puppy owners who have to clean it up call it a waste product. Likewise for people who take pride in their lawns. To them, dog urine is a force that wreaks havoc on their pristine green carpets. Urine scalding of grass is so upsetting to some people that they won’t allow their dogs access to their beautifully manicured lawns. Others try to limit unsightly yellow urine stains by adding ingredients such as baking soda or apple cider vinegar to their dogs’...
Read MoreEven Caring Has a Limit
With the daily demands life puts on us, it is stressful to provide comprehensive daily care to elderly parents when one or both parents are not as independent anymore. It’s usually the daughter caring for her elderly mother or father. The family caregiver can become mentally and physically exhausted, irritable and resentful. Just like our own pool of physical energy, the mental energy required to provide care to loved one has a limit. When it becomes very stressful to see a loved one struggling with independence, sometimes with high demands – at the end of the day it can be...
Read MoreSharing Your Story
Have you ever had the experience of hearing two people try to tell the same story at the same time? How they can each talk over the other as they try to tell their version of events, each convinced of their own connectedness? Your stories are your experiences of your life. You can become so convinced of the validity of your experience that you block out any other perception. The truth of the matter, as I have seen it and experienced is this – My truth of my life experience is mine and mine alone and your truth is yours. It is not my job to convince you of the rightness of my experience...
Read MoreToo Far From The City
Did I hear you utter under your breath, “Too far removed from the city for me.” I know you’d be gobsmacked with our “Gabriola emergency services infrastructure”. And, this is what I’m going to call it because moving here without much thought to what would happen if: I locked myself out of my house, out of my car, the campfire got out of control, found my neighbour running down my driveway with his hand slit open from his band saw, hadn’t heard from my elderly neighbour for weeks, witnessed through the autumn mist a crush of Highland cattle herding themselves down Burnside...
Read MoreThe Story of the Easter Tree
When I was a little girl I lived in Montreal. My Uncle Bill had a cottage in the Laurentions, on a lake called Lake McDonald, just up the road from Lost River. I loved Lake McDonald and the sweet, little cottage that sat above the lake in the forest. One Christmas my Uncle Bill took his girlfriend to the cottage. They cut down a tree and decorated it. By all accounts they spent a very romantic holiday at Lake McDonald. When they left the cottage they forgot to take down the Christmas tree. It sat in the cottage until my family came up for Easter. It must have been March as I remember there...
Read MoreThe Disconnection of Connection
I had a situation occur within the last couple of weeks that solidified my discomfort over computer or technology-based connections. Facebook, e-mail and texting have become the new way of creating community in many facets of society. Don’t get me wrong, I have engaged fully in this. Isn’t it so easy to just send a quick text or email? To join a group on Facebook? The lure of the smart phone and computer is hard to escape and yet we are losing core, fundamental abilities to really “connect”. I remember spending hours on the phone with friends, boyfriends, family, etc in the 80’s and...
Read MoreHow to Find Help
Are you confused or unsure about what kind of help you or your aging loved one is eligible for in the community? Congratulations! You are among the many Canadians who find navigating the healthcare system overwhelming and even a little scary. Many caregivers find the co-ordination role (similar to that of a case manager) the most stressful part of caregiving even though it takes less time than providing personal care or helping with other household tasks. Let’s say, you think your Mom or wife is showing signs of memory loss but you aren’t sure if it is serious. Or you aren’t...
Read MoreA New On-Line Shopping Page.
On-line marketing has become an ever increasing presence an the market place and Island Woman magazine has created a platform to assist smaller companies on the island to easily access and share in its potential. Trish Summerhayes, the owner of Island Woman, said “It’s very important to me to do all that I can to encourage small business’ on the island, especially those of island women. I was a small business owner for many years and I know that it can be very difficult to start up and run a business, especially for women. It is so draining trying to obtain start-up money...
Read MoreNew Emergency Resource.
An untapped resource is ready and available here in the Comox Valley,able to respond to medical emergencies in the event of disaster. Throughout the region there are approximately 100 physicians and specialists of which a substantial and increasing number do not carry privileges to perform duties at St. Joseph’s General Hospital. Physicians not attached to the hospital, however, provide essential treatment and care within the Valley’s medical clinics. Should a state of emergency be declared, in essence they become a necessary resource to the community. As a physician belonging to the...
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