This is a letter I will title 'It could easily happen to you,' or perhaps it should read 'The kindness of strangers.'
I'm a senior. I live on my pensions. I worked until the age of 78 as a landscaper. You can imagine the relief of my later retirement to have a pension to go to. All planned as things got paid off. In all honesty I do not like handouts, I'd rather work. And yes, I have collected my pension since the age of 65, however in reality they do not quite cover expenses.
Therefore, when I went to check on my pensions in my bank account at the end of July, it was substantially short. The shock knocked me right back, substantially. Long story short, and a topic for another day, as this is not about government cutbacks. It is the norm says Service Canada. Without notice or reason which is where the shock comes in. And no, not because of income as there was none.
This letter is about the Salvation Army's food bank which has literally saved me and my stomach, this month in all probability in a few months to come as the cutback in pensions took all my grocery money budgeted.
Salvation Army staff invited me in with open arms and cloaked me in an aura of kindness and understanding. Difficult, as I had always associated what they do for the misguided of society and there I was amongst them.
I'm educated, went back to school in my fifties for six years, built a successful business that fed three. I've always worked and not always in easy jobs, such as field work, spraying pesticides. etc.
And while I stood in line this week at the back of the Care and Share Sally Ann Centre on Yale Road where their building is that houses their fresh vegetables and coolers, I saw mothers with children and many who obviously had less. And there I stood with the rest. Truly humbled,
They say God works in mysterious ways. In bringing me to my knees, which the cut in my pensions did, it showed me that to receive is as gracious a gift as to give and not wholly reserved for the down and out in our community.
Give to the food bank, as you may be next in line. If that is not a good enough reason give because it really is the right thing to do. Mothers, children and old ladies who have worked their butts off for years. Don't pass that bin in the grocery store or the Cops' Fill a Cruiser day. This elderly (never old) lady says thanks.
As to the government cutbacks, an article for another day as they really did wallop the livin' daylights out of me, and not fully recovered yet. And a neighbour, too, his pension had a cut. National debt paid off on the backs of seniors? I feel another writing spree coming on. Stay tuned.
Georgia Kirkpatrick
