Premier Wall has announced a plan to help keep seniors in their own homes longer and I think he has already taken a major step to achieving that goal when he allowed STC to remove some of the bus routes in the Southwest. That is surely going to keep quite a few of the elderly from straying too far from their homes and curtailing their ability to attend appointments they may have made, for whatever reason, in the major cities.
Any plan or program that enables seniors to live in their own homes is wonderful but even the best plan doesn't automatically keep them out of long term care and hospitals. What is required is a good health care program that will include a plan to keep them active, both mentally and physically while they are living in their own homes and it should also include a plan that will help them to access low cost dental, vision and hearing services.
It must also include an exit plan when the time comes that they do have to leave their homes. When that decision is made with the help of family, compassion and extreme care must be exercised when relocation of those seniors to appropriate new residences is being considered. Now that kind of plan would be an excellent way of showing how much you "love" your seniors and how high your esteem for their contribution to this province is.
Christmas is just around the corner and maybe as seniors we could be excused for making our very own wish list, and have Premier Wall play Santa. Let's begin by asking for a little extra money through the Saskatchewan income plan. And how about a wish that would remove that $5 increase on the drug plan prescriptions that were so kindly applied recently. There are other items that we can wish for but we don't want to be too greedy.
Christmas is a time for giving and I know there are people out there with so little to spare, but even so there are always people with even less than we have. For some seniors Christmas is a difficult time especially when families are spread far apart and far away. In my time as a nurse I could never forget the pain on the faces of some of the old people I looked after on Christmas day morning when the visitors they had hoped and longed to see were not able to be there. All they had was me and other staff members and no matter how hard a person tries to make up for the absence of loved ones it isn't the same. One very elderly man told me that it certainly helped to have someone he could just talk to and share a little of the day with. Find some time to bring a little cheer into the lives of people who may think they have been forgotten. As seniors, time is what we have, and to give an hour or so to visit and to talk to someone less fortunate can bring so much joy to both the giver and receiver.
Seniors reminisce at this special time and I do my share of that. Remembering the anticipation my own daughters were going through when they were going to take part in the Christmas concert at school. Learning and rehearsing their roles was so exciting for them and for us as parents. The beautifully decorated school hall crowded with doting parents and grandparents primed to sing along with the familiar words of the appropriate carols.Going to pantomimes at the local theatre. if you could afford it, and watching professional actors singing and dancing to the themes of Aladdin, Puss in Boots and Cinderella come to mind. Being encouraged to cheer the hero and boo the villain was all part of that time of the year. What happened to those Christmases? Do they still play a part in modern day life or did they just go the same way that wishing friends and strangers "merry Christmas" did?
"Merry Christmas" will probably again stir up reactions in some Canadians and I suppose it's the word "Christ" that will have upset them, but I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone, seniors or not, that this country is a free country. The freedom that we have for each and every one of us to celebrate in our own way this special time of the year came at a terrible cost in the past to a large number of Canadians. Many citizens gave their lives so we could enjoy the freedom to follow our sectarian and cultural beliefs and it is our responsibility to ensure we continue to allow that freedom to exist. "Happy holidays" is not what this time of the year is about.
So this year I am going to wish everyone, editors and publishers of this letter, all my friends wherever they are who I had the good fortune to meet by just being a senior a very, very merry Christmas and my wishes and hopes for a healthy and happy new year.
Everyone of the provincial executive board of the Saskatchewan Seniors Association Inc. would also want to be included in that wish. So have the merriest time possible and be careful if you do have to travel. Stay active and stay healthy.
