Jeanette Dunagan says goodbye to Senior Moments

Back in the day, April 2006 to be exact, I received a call from then Managing Editor John Harding at The Daily Courier. He suggested a freelance agreement that would specify a biweekly column featuring the dreams and schemes of local seniors in response to the growing demographic of retired Saskatchewan farmers in this valley.

Prior to this opportunity, I had served as intern at Paul Byrne’s Okanagan Life magazine. I learned a lot about the local scene and found I had a flair for personal interviews.

I fondly remember an afternoon with May Bennett at her Ethel Street home. She was as warm and friendly as the grandmother next door. Evenings I spent with fabulous artists, like Julie Oakes, writers, business leaders and meeting musicians such as Stu Goldberg in his studio.

In 2005, I met the Lady of the Lake, I wrote a report on an allcandidates forum, “New Faces,” and I interviewed volunteers extraordinaires like the Helen Hut of Kelowna Hostesses.

I learned a lot about the hospitality industry in our (then) little village. I met Karl and Julie Kuipers at Jakx restaurant in the Mission. I met Dave Mazza, kitchen leader, and Laura Feeny, front manager at Earl’s.

With a writing assignment directed toward food and drink, I met sous chefs, wine aficionados and many of the area’s top professionals, who were generous with hand-written recipes and appy samples.

Fast forward to the present and I am wrapping up 10 years of writing for our local newspaper and saying good-bye to all the readers who have responded to my weird, but sometimes wonderful, take on the senior years.

Readers know I am 80-something and weary of discussions that centre around hips and knees. My own concerns around lungs and heart are really wearing me out.

When friends come in, we agree to spend five minutes on death and dying and then move on to promising subjects like the upcoming referendum, Calgary’s Grey Cup win, and our revised Christmas list. This year it will be gift cards only.

If I were to initiate a new feature for seniors, it would focus on the spiritual aspects of old age.

It is time for me to say goodbye to the Senior Moments column and focus on the spiritual nature of old age now that the physical and mental aspects of my life are in decline.

Seniors know the golden years are a cruel joke with loss on every side.

But I can tell from my own personal experience how these last days and weeks have (almost) been filled with contentment, happiness, gratitude.

I think the clear thinking is the result of having to rest and reflect while dealing with my recent COPD flare-up.

Because my heart is now determined to keep the oxygen flowing, despite tired lungs, I need yet another prescription and more treatments from the world of cardiology added to my daily routine to get me up and out of bed. (Dressing takes another three hours.)

I believe most seniors would agree that old age has been the biggest surprise of life.

Once I accepted the facts of death and dying, I found myself smiling at the time spent wondering what to wear in my casket.

(Of course, I would appreciate something comfortable with an elastic waist, but created from a deluxe fabric. This last dress should be white, fitted just slightly.)

Most seniors find the golden years somewhat disappointing and trying to point out the advantages of old age leaves us with long gaps in the conversation.

And yet, here I sit with my monster cat, my perfect poodle, overstuffed pillows, oxygen tubing and cold coffee reflecting on the sense of contentment that is rising from my core. Yes, that same core we know lives somewhere between our liver and lower abdomen.

I have perfected a smile that hides the missing teeth from my lower left jaw. I do this by holding my upper lip just so. No hiding the lined face and flawed breasts, the fluid-filled ankles and skin that looks like it came from outer space.

Nothing like my skin here on planet Earth. I am not thrilled with the look of my body, nor the diminished abilities.

But here I sit, smiling with my once beautiful teeth and savouring a sense of contentment. Mike helps me in the bath, I am back to my salon for a fresh hair style and everyone

I love is coming for Christmas. A time for me to rest, reflect, refocus. A time for me to dedicate myself to comfort and joy. To sheer contentment.

So I am increasingly content. Content with the long life I have been blessed to live. Content with my blessed children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Friends know how much I appreciate their companionship over the years, my mother and father know I am aware I won the parent lottery.

In the future, I pledge to encourage everyone I meet and to do my best to demonstrate that living bravely to the end is not always easy but living bravely to the end is exactly what I would like to do.

I welcome this one last feat with faith, goodness, knowledge, selfcontrol, perseverance, godliness, kindness and love.

Whew!