Moving with the times
Three times a week, Arnie Nickel leads a 45-minute exercise session for seniors on Zoom, a virtual-meeting app. Participants are enthusiastic and their numbers are growing. It all began eight or nine years ago, when a small group of seniors at Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon started an exercise group under the Saskatoon-based Forever…
The gifts of grey hair
“O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come” (Psalm 71:17-18). I have grey hair; this is where life has placed me. I am…
Thankfulness in a taxicab
Eva Klaassen lives in a seniors housing complex in Prince Albert. She doesn’t own a car, so every Sunday morning she takes a taxi to Grace Mennonite Church. Many of the drivers are new to Canada, she says, but all are very friendly. Often, when they find out that she wants them to take her…
Green bench wisdom
The concept is simple. In a public place, an older adult sits on a green bench that is marked with the hashtag #ElderWisdom. Community members are invited to sit and engage in conversation about the senior’s life, experience and insights. Afterwards, community members can share about their experience on social media, using the hashtag. The…
‘God just isn’t finished with me yet’
I was raised in a family with Scottish Presbyterian roots, where no one talked about faith for fear of being “too religious.” We trusted that seniors had it all figured out and their faith carried them, although we would be stretched to say we understood how. I wonder sometimes about their experience with God and…
Still the same inside
For Anita Lehmann, home is the dementia unit at the Mennonite Nursing Home. But unlike most of the unit’s 29 other residents, Lehmann doesn’t suffer from dementia. When it became evident she needed care, Lehmann took the only room available in the 68-bed facility, which happened to be in what staff refer to as the…
A soon-to-be favourite recipe
We all have our favourite recipes. There is the tried and true. Or there’s the newly created ones that are fun to test and then turn into classics. One tried and true combination in life is older adults and children, yet it is a combination that may not be as common as either group would…
Prodigal pastor
Seventy-four-year-old George Ediger rushed out of church during the final song and caught up with the newcomer in the parking lot before the big young visitor with the shaved head and biker beard could escape in the maroon hot rod that stood out among the grey and beige sedans. That gesture of welcome, although not…
Prairie Meadow Place is ‘a wonderful place’ for seniors
Dorine Russell sits in a comfortable armchair in her new room at Prairie Meadow Place, a cup of coffee by her side. “This is a wonderful place,” she says. “I love it here.” Russell moved to Rosthern, Sask., from Ontario a year ago to be near her daughter, who lives in Waldheim. She’s one of…
Parkview Home celebrates 50 years of service
The Parkview auditorium was filled on Sept. 27, 2015, as residents, past and present board members, and community supporters gathered to celebrate 50 years of service to the community by Parkview Home. Established jointly by people from local Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Missionary churches in 1965, it has provided a caring Christian environment for…
