Morning Mirror 61 25th August 2003

GLORIOUS THOUGHTS

Th Coucals are back after the winter and are calling so frantically in the garden, that even the cats are giving them a wide berth...... the jasmine is flowering in all it's heady glorious profusion...... and I saw not one but two street sweepers this morning... and they were.... yes you guessed it..... sweeping happily..... hurrah for the Bulawayo City Council.

An Old Woman's Poem:

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.....

Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill....
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten ... with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.

A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty -- my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old woman ... and nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.

I think of the years ....all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
Not a crabby old woman; look closer ...see ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an old
person who you might brush aside without looking
at the young soul within. We will one day be there, too!

S.O.A.P.

SUPPORT OLD AGE PENSIONERS

SOAP now supplies meat, fruit and grocery parcels monthly to 56 pensioners in Bulawayo. In June the average cost per hamper was $25502.00 so you can imagine what they are costing today......

The hampers contain the following items - sugar, salt, jam, soap, body lotion, soup, toilet rolls, baked beans, pilchards, tea, cooking oil, minced meat, sausages, polony, biltong, fruit, vegetables, rice, oats, dishwasher, usavi, milk power, spaghetti, tins tinned foods, biscuits, toothpaste, and apple juice. Names continue to be submitted for consideration and the more we get around, the more aware we become of just how many elderly folk are simply hiding away not knowing which way to turn When you talk to these folk you feel their terror. They do not know what is going to happen to them.......

For enquires about or donations to SOAP contact Lyn Abbott on 230070 or Margaret kriel on 251542 or e mail Lyn at lynwood@gatorzw.com or Margaret at magskriel@mac.com

HOW TO STAY YOUNG (George Carlin)

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD

Please can I encourage everyone who subscribes to the MM to send in their hatches, matches and despatches - even when they don't occur in Zim. I am quite sure that many of my acquaintances from school have got married, or had babies (or sadly died) and I haven't heard about it yet simply because they aren't in Bulawayo any more. I would love to know and I am sure I am not the only one!!

Margie Rees

Dave Botha's just contacted me, he, his wife Cyndi & 3 kids in tow have arrived in England & are currently staying with relatives of Dave's in Devon. I never thought I'd see the day when Dave would leave Zim, I thought he was a 'lifer'. It's no easy task at his age with all the responsibilities that go with having a family to make that wrench. but I'm sure they will adjust & get on with it.

P.S. My mum's just got herself a breadmaker!! Saves the hassle ongetting up in the morning at 5 to join the pensioners' bread queue.

Even that was cut down to twice a week only. Must pass on that rollmaking recipe.........

Regards
Darrell Insley

name: Donald Pharo
email: donpharo@hotmail.com

I am from S.A. living in London for last 18 months.Want to contact Stephen Lambert who was a teacher in Bulawayo, we met on the Pendenniscastle when he was on his way to Rhodesia about 1960????? to join his guardian he was about 16 at the time,must be about 59 now.He returned to England some years later, we corresponded but lost his address, have not had contact for years.There may be someone in Bulawayo who still corresponds or knows his address.Would you be able to help.Many thanks Donald

Congratulations

Roy, Yvonne & Lane

Are absolutely over the moon to Announce the engagement of Their only daughter & sister KIMBERLY TRACY TO MICHAEL ANTHONY Eldest son & brother of Paul Tony & Mitzie Le Roux & Dion & Christine Gregory

CONDOLENCES

DORREN LEE DEARLY LOVED MOTHER OF PAULINE, RICHARD, ANDREW AND PETER RONNIE THOMAS DEARLY LOVED BROTHER OF CECELIA, VERONICA, ROOKIE, JERRY AND MICKEY

MARK RUBEUS - DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO JANEEN, TRISH AND LES

MOLLY APPEL REUNITED WITH HUSBAND JAN, DAUGHTERS SANDRA AND MARGARET WITH LOVE FROM GERALDINE

BOB GROBLER....DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO ANNE, GAVIN, JANINE AND BABETTE

MALCOLM JANSEN - A FINE PIPER WILL BE LOVINGLY REMEMBERED

MRS M. DUBE - PRINCIPAL OF FOUNDATION COLLEGE

MOVIES

• CITY ONE UN FAITHFULL 18

• CITY TWO STAR WARS EPISODE 2 AA

• CITY THREE ORIGINAL SIN 18

• CITY FOUR TWO WEEKS NOTICE AA

• ELITE 400 THE GURU AND THE LADIES MAN 18

TIDBITS

KEEP AN EYE ON THE STAGGERING NEW POSTAL RATES AND THE TEL ONE RATES........LOCAL LETTERS ARE NOW $300......

GINGER ROGERS DID EVERYTHING FRED ASTAIRE DID, BUT SHE DID IT BACKWARDS AND IN HIGH HEELS

All that you are is a result of all that you have thought.

CRICKET

Congratulations to Bulawayo's Mululeki Nkala who has replaced Brian

Murphy as Captain of Zimbabwe A Cricket.

Just a little bit of useless news: 

At our company (an engineering company in Bulawayo) we have, through many hardships, stress and heartaches, managed to pay our weekly wage (cash) workers in full every week since the money crisis began some weeks ago. However, last Friday, the wheels started to come off a bit and our wages staff worked until after 6pm to pack some 100 pay packets using $100 and $50 notes. The envelopes were huge and it took forever to count all the money. Today (Tuesday) the chairman of our workers committee came to my office and told me that the workers who had waited for their wages until 6pm (on Fridays we knock off at 4pm) wanted to know if we were going to pay them overtime for the two hours they had waited for their pay!!!!!  Guess what could possibly happen next week.

Anon

A JOKE !

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. The next week the man realized that he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight to Chicago. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (AND LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5:00 AM."

The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and that he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up."

Men are just not equipped for these kinds of contests.