In a world that venerates youth, elevating speed, energy and physical beauty near to the summit of human ambition, getting old can seem like the greatest sin of all.
It can even become a betrayal of how we see ourselves, and how we wish to be seen.
In such a world it is easy … at times almost comforting … to forget that women like Jennie Sutherland exist. Jennie is old. Very old. So old, in fact, that she has seen, heard, smelled, touched, tasted and probably loved much more than most of us.
On Oct. 4 Jennie turns 105, a cause for celebration among family, friends and neighbours at Jubilee Manor, and perhaps a time for others to reflect on their own lives.
Although old, although a little hard of hearing, although not as agile as she once was, Jennie is not to be counted out. Far from it.
Jennie has a lot to offer, but it is up to us to recognise her gift. She is a treasure trove of memories. She is not like the arid pages of a historical tome which records events, she is rather a living resource from which we can draw inspiration and perhaps lead a better life.
She was born into a world without planes, cars, buses, electricity, television or telephones, and has lived through some of history’s most momentous events, including two world wars and the Great Depression.
When she was a child, horse and buggies rattled along crudely graded roadways, wood-burning stoves kept out winter’s wrath, oil lamps lit homes at night, and family entertainment meant singing and dancing in kitchens and living rooms, playing parlour games, or winding up the gramophone.
It was an age of self-reliance, of getting by with very little by today’s standards, particularly during the 1930s when 30 per cent of Canada’s labour force was out of work.
Jennie, her husband Bill and their seven children came within a mortgage payment away of losing their farm and living on the streets.
Yet through it all Jennie’s humour never deserted her. She never let financial hardship defeat her.
In a poem, Our Special Mom, written by Jennie’s daughter Leona Stocking, one of the verses goes:
“She taught us songs and dances,
The polka, waltz, two-step,
We whirled around throughout the house,
Stirred up flies and scared the mouse,
The gramophone played out the tune
We brought sunshine to every room.”
The poem is a celebration of the human spirit.
So yes, while it is right to celebrate youth, to enjoy its glamour and excitement, let us also honour our seniors.
Let us be careful of them, let us be kind. Above all, let us be proud of those like Jennie Sutherland whose experience can enrich us and help our understanding of the world.
For they are our greatest living resource.
