Recently members of the Forever Young Choir held their annual, summer windup potluck and BBQ party at the Kole Creek Bison Ranch near Hixon. The Kole Creek Bison Ranch, one of only a very few bison breeders in British Columbia registered with the Canadian Bison Association, is owned and operated by Vern and Verna Wright. The bison ranch is a great place and everyone had a wonderful time.
The 24 seniors (the average age here is 76.8 years) and their partners who attended the party were Lino and I, Bill and Donna Bosnich, Al and Gladys Thorp, Laurie and Minnie Meier, Janice Taylor (our choir director) and Joe Anderson, Joyce and Charlie Burkitt, Vern and Verna Wright, Lothar and Christina Hirt, Joyce and Peter Bickford, Pam Meyer, Ray Lougheed, Carol Anderson, Margret Keibel, Pat Sexsmith and Roberta Johansen.
As seniors we carpooled and we all gathered at the ranch on a hot summer afternoon. Thanks to the music supplied by Bill Bosnich, Al Thorp, Laurie Meier, Margret Keibel and Janice Taylor we had a great team-building and inspirational sing-along. Together we all sang song after song and then enjoyed a wonderful potluck lunch with one of the highlights being the bison meatballs.
Just a note about bison meat: bison is one of the leanest meats and has a lot of protein as well. The amount of protein you get in bison meat, without the saturated fat, makes it a great alternative to regular beef and not only that it tastes very similar to beef while being lower in cholesterol.
As we all sat gathered in that circle singing all those old songs I had to reflect back on the past nine years that I have been a member of and have been associating with the members of this amazing group. They all seem to underscore Bette Davis' famous quote, "Old age is no place for sissies." Many have battled cancer and are still winning the battle while several others are deep into the battle with cancer. Many have faced daunting obstacles with the loss of a partner or other health issues and physical challenges. By sheer will and determination they have not given up.
The members of our group have a variety of different backgrounds and fields of interest. However, we all have one thing in common - we are all seniors and we haven't let our age stop us from having fun, making new friends and singing our songs.
It is inevitable that we will all continue aging along with our aches and pains and the knee and hip replacement surgeries but we will all forge on. We have all learned lessons from our failures and successes throughout our lives and what I really admire is that none of us is ready to give up. We all want as many more years as we can possibly get.
No matter what, this is a group that has always been there for one another over the many years that this singing group has been together under the direction of our leader Janice Taylor. As usual we have recessed for the summer but we will meet again in September.
July birthdays that I know about are: Bonnie Pauley, Scott Pauley, Jack Tremblay, Joan Buchi (85), Fred Buchi (91), Armand Denicola (93), Virginia Flanagan, Lee Davison, Armand LeFebvre, Sandy Banzer, Sheila Carr, Iva Lovett, Jenny Bachmann, Lorne Carbert, Brenda Doucette, Pat
McKenna, Gloria Thorpe, Della Walker, Dennis Ableson, Mildred Green, Doris Aiken, Lavinia Ouellet, Gary Kwast, Roy Green, Bernice Carrier, Carole Pitchko, Helen Sarrazin, Henri LeFebvre, Richard LeFebvre, Eugene Fichtner, Pat Sexsmith, Alice Westra, Redford McKenzie, Karen McKenzie, Leonard Duperron, Ed Valenta, Doris Bolduc, Eileen Slusarenko, Gub Striker, Randy Sokolowski, Pam Barmettler, Ed Valenta, Isobel Blair, Carmen Foucher, Mary Taschner, Mary Radke, Paul Cote, Delores Baza, Pete Goodall, Linda Williams, Francis Burns, Virginia Archibald, Linda Letawski, Kathleen Boyes, T.A. Mackay, Elmer Braun, Walter Okimaw, Elsie Caron, Lois Olenik, Leo Denis, Marius Pereira, Shirley Dewald, Dorcas Raines, Norma Raycraft, Mildred Fugate, Leone Sadowick, Gail Gromball, Harvey Schroeder, Gervin Halladay, Beatrice Horning, Ben Wilson, Carol Hunter, Robert Whitehead, Alf (Alan) Nunweiler, Emma Strasbourg, Joyce Kennedy and Karin Martwig.
July anniversaries: 60 years for Wil and Elsie Wiens, 54 years for Rudy and Velma Wortman, 12 years for Eugene and Hilda Fichtner.
