Bendigo Seniors Spring 2021 magazine

With ample life experiences, some of the story tellers have faced their darkest days with honesty and courage, and feel much better in the telling.

Like George Smith said when he was chatting with Uniting AgeWell recently.

The highly-skilled furniture maker left South Africa over 40 years ago, and landed a job in the industry less than 48 hours after arriving in Melbourne. And up until his retirement ten years ago, he's been designing and making furniture - mainly lounge suites - at businesses in both Melbourne and Bendigo, where he now lives.

"The kids bought their own lounge suites when they moved out," the 76-year-old laughs, "and we used the furniture my wife inherited. So, the only thing I've made for the family home is a wardrobe."

Want to check out all the great stories in our emag edition of Bendigo Seniors Magazine? Click on the link here.

George, who is widowed, has diabetes and arthritis in his hands, and gets help with the housework and gardening thanks to his Home Care Package with Uniting AgeWell.

But although he makes couches, George is certainly no couch potato! He's a member of the Probus Club, meets a group of friends every Friday for dinner, plays lawn bowls and loves reading. He volunteers at St Paul's Cathedral, and he and his wife Peggy both volunteered at St John of God Bendigo Hospital.

"Uniting AgeWell is very caring," George says. "They're so helpful, so kind ... and their support means I can carry on living at home. I've lived here 19 years; it's a big house with a big garden, but it's comfortable and it's where I want to be."

Once again, we have some of the latest thinking on aged care from Ruth Hosking, who has seen the trauma a family and loved ones go through when it's time for that next step in the ageing process. She has devoted her time and ideas to try to make the journey as transparent as possible.

At a mature age most seniors find, unconsciously, that they have stopped trying to impress people, decide they have enough 'stuff', and settle into the life of an MWA (mature with age) citizen, just like Hanni in our Tales from Afar story. She has become someone who is happy with what she has in her life, but made it so. And that is a sound recipe for anyone, no matter the date on their birth certificate.

Elizabeth Gilbert says it best, as always, "Imagine a life in which every day a person is presented with not two or even three, but dozens of choices, and you can begin to grasp why the modern world has become, even with all its advantages, a neurosis-generating machine of the highest order. In a world of such abundant possibility, many of us simply go limp from indecision."

No matter how you feel, as the saying goes 'get up, dress up and show up' because life isn't a gift wrapped with a silken bow, but it's still the best gift you'll ever receive.

This time round, there is a Didya know that? page, with some handy tidbits to keep you entertained.

Like the chicken facts

Didya know hens talk to their babies while they are in the egg, before they have even hatched? And the chicks peep back at them!

Chickens can recognise more than 100 human or chicken faces and they can see a wider range of colours than humans can.

Chickens use more than 24 different voices, or vocalisations, to let their friends know important pieces of information.

Hens have a sense of time, so they know it's 10 minutes since you went to fill their water bowl.

They can also work out that certain actions can give them a prize or reward for it.

And... Cucumbers!

Who knew cucumbers are Mother Nature's medicos? They can help keep your kidneys healthy, help regulate blood pressure and because they are 90 percent water they promote hydration in the body.

Packed full of nutrients, in just a single cup of cucumber slices, you'll get 14% to 19% of the vitamin K you need for the day. You'll also get vitamins B and C along with minerals like copper, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium.

Cucumbers have a unique set of antioxidants, including flavonoids, lignans, and triterpenes. They not only protect cells but also lessen inflammation that's linked to arthritis and other long-term conditions.

And for a final soother here is a spot of poetry for your day called...

Love after love

The time will come

when, with elation,

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror,

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

by Derek Walcott

1992 Nobel Prize in Literature

And for something a bit more lighthearted, and for the hard of hearing perhaps, here is a happy snapshot.

Enjoy your read!