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Earlier Newsletters
Click here to access a PDF version of the Spring 2008 Newsletter
Click here to access a PDF version of the Winter 2007 Newsletter
Recommended Reading
In a Strange Land - People with Dementia and the Local Church. Malcolm Goldsmith
Cost £14.95 Copies available through his website
Spirituality and Ageing - Looking at Life and death - Age Concern Newsletter 6, Summer 2007
For copies, enquire to FiOP office
Other Items of Interest
Shared Experiences
Jean, who attended the course at Dunbar, tells of taking a lady of ninety plus to visit her friend who lived in a nursing home. They had been friends for over sixty years but now both were very deaf and and found it difficult and frustrating to follow what was being said.
One day they noticed a computer in the corner of the lounge. Permission was granted to use this and it was set up to enable one page at a time to be seen in large black type. Jean was a fast typist and was able to keep up with the "conversation". As both had worked in the medical field they were able to discuss the finer points of treatments before moving onto family issues.
The resident's family had asked us "not to spill the beans" about a pressing family problem because of the difficulties of explaining it to someone so hard of hearing but her friend felt strongly that she should know and be involved. Eventually it was agreed that she could be told and it was very moving to see the way her friend explained the situation in gentle steps, stage by stage, giving time for each sentence to be taken in before moving on.
It was not an easy time for all involved but now, rather than being excluded they both had an important part to play and were able to be prayerfully involved and support one another.
Growing Old with Interest
Patty claims she is a late developer. Late at growing up and late in life at being ordained - she was ordained deacon in the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1986 at age 70. She is a Franciscan Hermit of the Transfiguration - the other two members of this community are Roland Walls and John Halsey. Some of the history of this community is explained in the book about Roland Walls called A Mole under the Fence by Ron Ferguson published last year. True to the Franciscan tradition she has lived in a spartan flat in Loanhead for thirty years or more and has a chapel in a shed in her garden where she welcomes allcomers to pray and reflect on life.
Patty was born in 1916 in a house called Easter Warriston in North Edinburgh and remembers a happy childhood climbing sooty trees in the area (long before smokeless zones!). She and her sisters used to walk to St Oran's School in Drummond Place. Her family were the last to give up the use of horse and cart in Edinburgh, and she remembers an incident where a train on the North Edinburgh Line to Leith startled their horse and it bolted - they were only saved by a brave man coming out of Waterston's the printers (beside what is now B & Q) and grabbing the bridle. Their house Easter Warriston has now become Warriston Crematorium and the original drawing room windows are still in place in the large chapel.
When I went to visit Patty recently I realised that she had had her hair cut and it transpired that it was for the first time in fifty years! I asked her how she had decided to take this step.
"One day my fingers would not do what they were told any more. That morning I could not get my fingers to hold the Kirkby grip which held my long hair in place so I knew the hair had to come off. I had thought if I had it cut I would have to perm it but I haven't. It looks fine just as it is. I am very glad it's cut. I can go out in the wind and it doesn't matter!"
The hairdresser in Portobello which her daughter recommended really entered into the importance of this occasion and handled it very sensitively. "It was wonderful, a kind lady washed my hair in a way it had not enjoyed for years, and the final result was liberating." She may consider herself a late developer but the ability to change is still with her.
Mary Moffett