I headed up to the local Sobey’s grocery store to pick up some milk and juice. When I parked my car in the parking lot, I remembered that the scotch I had in my pantry was nearly empty. That was the last of a bottle bought in Mesquite, NV in October, 2014 — and since there is a liquor store just next to the grocery store, I was heading there first.

As I was on my way in, a smartly dressed lady came out of the Sobey’s Liquor Store carrying a six-pack of Strongbow Apple Cider. She was between me and the store so when I got near to her, I said, “I think I’ll come over to your house!”

She replied, “Do you like this too? I’m not a beer fan but I do like this Strongbow!”

I said I had tried it a time or two, that it’s quite nice. I said I like a cold Michelob Ultra Light beer after a hot day on the golf course — and the conversation went on from there.

Her name is Vera Goodman and she’s an educator who has designed The Story Circle Model of Education which she will be piloting this fall on a First Nations Reserve. She has also created The Making Sense Approach to Reading which can turn non-readers into readers in as little as one session and improves fluency and comprehension for all readers. Her course is online and can be accessed on her website, Reading Wings.

What’s Missing Most in Our Lives? Conversations with Men

One of the things we talked about was how we had both been widowed for quite a number of years and how we missed having conversations with men. Both of us, we discovered, are rarely invited socially in an environment where men are present with the exception of family. We do have mixed bridge at the community centres but conversation is light what little conversation there is (it is Bridge, after all) is limited. Finding men friends is a major problem, we agreed, with so many more women than men around as you climb up the age ladder.

Online Dating

Vera laughingly told me of one of her friends in Toronto is 82 and she’s getting married next month to a man she met in one of those online dating websites who is 10 years younger than her.

Soon after she’d started dating him, she called up Vera to talk about the dilemma she found herself in. She really liked this man and he really liked her. But she’d lied about her age on that website form — in fact she didn’t know of any woman her age willing to be on the market who didn’t lie about their age on those sites. Can you tell what a 67-year-old looks like?  Does he or she LOOK 57, 67 or 77?  I certainly can’t.

But now things were getting serious between the two of them and she was worried that coming clean about her age would jeopardize their relationship.

It took her six months to garner up enough courage to tell him her real age – and he responded with a chuckle and a marriage proposal. My guess is that this fellow didn’t see age as a number, which is something I’ve written about before.

Not only do you meet the nicest people on the golf course but you can also meet them in the parking lot of grocery (and liquor) stores.  Thank you, Vera, for making my day, making me laugh and being an incredibly active senior with so much to do before the fat lady sings.