Hello Once Again

Hi. My last letter from the Annex was sent last September. Since then much has happened, as is true for all of us. I’ll summarize some of the things that have gone on in my little corner of the universe. The bigger picture is being writ large in the media.

Most of the winter was devoted to my travels in Puerto Vallarta and in Asia, coming to a close in Los Angeles from where we returned to Puerto Vallarta -- all documented at www.istanbultohongkong.blogspot.com  

I have joined the Academy of Life Long Learning – www.allto.ca for anyone interested. It is a group of primarily retired people who organize and go to seminars focussed on issues or topics that interest them. The seminars are held in two-hour segments every second week during the school year, all given at Knox College on the University of Toronto campus. To join one pays $180 for the year and can take up to four seminars for this princely cost. I have signed up for the following:

 

 1)Reflections on Aging – for which I will do a presentation on the importance of friendship for women’s emotional and physical well-being as they grow older.

 

 2) Literary Biography: bios of Robertson Davis (I’ve been reading it but find it too long and somewhat boring); Arthur Miller – much more interesting; my presentation or rather leadership in a discussion will be focussed on his play A Death of a Salesman which I first read and was deeply impressed by, in my first year of university at Ottawa U; Oscar Wilde; Janet Malcolm’s book about Ted Hughes and Silvia Plath; and my favorite – Hazel Rowley’s Tete-a-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. I read that one in conjunction with At the Existentialist’s Café for our recent book club. It was ever-so interesting.

 

 3) Literature: Reading Other Lives: ten works of fiction and non-fiction by wonderful authors who tell a story within a world or culture unlike our own. When I read the list of books proposed, I knew that I had to sign up.

  

4) Contemporary Film: two current films will be decided for all the member to see and be ready to discuss for each class. Sounds like fun as I go to most of the really good films being shown here in Toronto anyway.

During the summer and into the fall some members of the Academy organize walks every Tuesday morning. There is the two-hour walk and the milder one-and-a half hour walk. Both groups meet at the end at a nearby restaurant for lunch. I have been on quite a few of these. Usually about 15-20 people attend, though the Academy itself is about 350 strong (it has been running for 25 years). Many of the same people come on the walks so I have gotten to chat with many of them and find them a really interesting and pleasant bunch with whom to spend time.

At the beginning of October Billie, my now 12-year old granddaughter and I will spend two weeks in Europe. It’s her turn to get about Paris and Italy with Nana, checking out all the best gelato places as well as a few tourist locales. We’ll be sending a blog about our adventures.

One other thing is happening this year: last summer a group of us got together to raise some money to sponsor a refugee family to Canada. We call ourselves the Annex Support Group. While I was away during the winter this terrific bunch put together not just money but also furniture and furnishings for our expected family. We had been responding to the need in particular for safe havens for Syrian families but as families were brought here, we had yet to be assigned. About a month ago we were asked to sponsor instead a family from Iran—one which we believe has been living in a refugee camp for some time. The family consists of the parents and two teen-aged daughters. We have, of course, accepted them, but they have yet to arrive. Our big difficulty at the moment is finding housing for them as rental housing is scarce and expensive here in Toronto. Also, because we don’t have a date for their arrival, we can’t set up anything definite. But we are all excited about meeting with them and beginning our long relationships with the whole family, helping them in the ways that we can to become comfortable, at home, new Canadians.

So that is all my news from what I guess I now need to call the West Annex. All the best. Brenda