Olga (11 page)

If a member of the family had died during the year, a place is set for her/him at the table in the belief that the spirit of the deceased unites with the family on that Holy Night.
Sviata Vechera
Holy Supper itself consists of twelve meatless dishes representing the twelve apostles who shared the Last Supper with Jesus Christ. We prepare the dishes with vegetable oil: this custom reflects the omitting of all animal
fat.

As mentioned in chapter three, the main and first-served dish is
kutya
, which is whole wheat cooked for many hours and prepared with honey and ground poppy seed. The origin of
kutya
dates back 5000 years when the ancestors of the Ukrainian people first cultivated wheat. This ritual dish has ancient symbolic, religious, and agricultural meanings and represents a continuance of family unity. Wheat, honey, and poppy seeds symbolize the fertility of God’s nature; therefore,
kutya
is accepted as a symbol for peace, prosperity, and good
health.

After the solemn meal, the family joins in singing carols (
koliady
). The most popular carol is “
Boh Predvichney Narodyvsya
” (God Eternal is Born). At midnight everyone attends the Holy Liturgy at the parish
church.

Ukrainian carols
koliady
and
shchedrivky
, sung by the Ukrainian people during Christmas, are generally known because of their unique musical harmony, beauty, and joyful inspiration. Many express agricultural motifs with wishes for good health, happiness, and abundance in the New Year. The main theme of our carols, such as
koliadky
, is strictly religious, glorifying the advent of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. It may be noted that a popular carol in North America, “the Carol of the Bells”, is actually a Ukrainian
shchedrivka
, a New Year
carol.

As you can see, I love my community and our Ukrainian traditions. My Ukrainian heritage has been a significant contributor to my identity, as have been my Canadian background and my connections to New Westminster and West Vancouver. Heritage of place is like an external inheritance: where you’re born and where you live help develop character and enhance self-image. I am grateful for the many friends and lovely celebrations within my community that have enriched my
life.

To give back to my community, I taught school for 34 years, and today I sing in two Ukrainian choirs, namely Vancouver St. Mary’s church choir and
Svitanok
Folk Chorus. The magic that arises from the joy of music makes singing a healthy pastime. Singing or engaging in any kind of music is healthy for the mind, body, and spirit. The therapeutic power of music boosts our resistance to infections, calms anxiety, and helps us sleep better. It makes me feel great and improves my
mood.

The
Svitanok
Folk Chorus with choir leader Ann Kvitka Kozak. Photo by Leo
Lui.

I thank my Guardian Angel for protecting me, and thank my God for guiding me and sustaining my good health in body, mind, and spirit. Throughout my life, I have recognized that God’s love is also a part of my heritage, and I count my blessings every day. Little did I know how much I would need this deep abiding faith as well as my precious community to help me cope during a very dark time in my
life.

My elder daughter Nadine would often refer to me as “my mother the jock”. She watched me compete a number of times, and I knew that she was as proud of me as I was of her. Nadine followed in my footsteps and became a teacher and taught in Burnaby schools for 20 years. In 1993, she and her partner, John Vendetti, opened a lovely Italian restaurant in Coquitlam called “The Stinking Rose”. It was a garlic lover’s paradise and featured garlic in all of its fine dishes. A newspaper reporter commented on its fine atmosphere and incomparable cuisine, calling it “Coquitlam’s Best Kept Secret”. It was a treat to visit their restaurant and to know my daughter had worked so hard on creating its décor, cuisine, and excellent
service.

In 1999, my daughter Nadine passed away after a ten-year battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I find it difficult to talk about Nadine’s death even to this day. It is against nature for a parent to bury her
child.

After Nadine’s death, I realized that the only thing I could control was my attitude and mental competence. Life has a way of making you adapt to circumstances that are beyond your control. There is no training program or vitamin that makes you immune to misfortune or circumstances that are beyond your control. I threw myself into my sports, and I maintained a strong connection to my community to cope with the traumatic loss. For several years, I captained a team from St. Mary’s Parish in the Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, a popular cancer fundraiser. Our parish has raised thousands of dollars and was ranked 6th out of 29 teams in terms of money
raised.

Wonderful West Vancouver

When I retired from teaching and moved to West Vancouver, I soon realized that I was fortunate to live in an outstanding vibrant community. The West Vancouver Seniors Centre is a centre of inspiration with over 600 active volunteers who provide leadership, knowledge, and skills to enhance the quality and growth of the centre and its members. According to Jill Lawlor, community recreation manager, “Members learn. Members play. Members inspire”. The centre hosts a variety of activities, events, and programs ranging from art classes to snooker, technology classes to quilting bees. The warm and welcoming Garden Side Café weekly offers a variety of healthy hot lunches and
dinners.

The West Vancouver Recreation Centre has become my home away from home where I work out in the exercise room and take part in aquafit (aerobics in the water). Fitness experts tell us that for long-range health benefits, it’s best to cross-train our bodies by emphasizing aerobics one day, weight training the next, and perhaps yoga on the day after that. Walk on Mondays. Swim on Tuesdays. That is the model that I follow for cardiovascular conditioning, balance, flexibility, and strength
training.

If you have never been to a gym, you will soon overcome your intimidation when you enter the gym at the West Vancouver Recreation Centre. Go directly to an attendant who works there; introduce yourself and explain why you have come. He or she needs to know your status: tell them what your intentions are, so they can devise a suitable plan for where you need to start. You will soon become acquainted with the various exercise machines, why this one, why that one, and what you will gain by using it. The attendant will start you off with a routine he or she feels is right for you. Go for it! There you are. That wasn’t so bad. The attendants are knowledgeable about how to get you started. They can shepherd you and instruct you as you move along to health and
wellness.

Be brave. No inhibitions. They are there to help you. Some day you will thank me for this
advice.

I am obsessed with aquasize, a non-stop session of stretching, cardio, and weights that will help you get in shape too. I chose the Aquafit
plus
class. My one-hour aquafit class begins at 7:30 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The class consists of 45 eager, early-rising men and women. It is a terrific place for fitness and fun. Exercising in the water feels differently from exercising on land. It is a unique training medium. Aqua fitness is challenging to do, and it requires concentration and practice. Even to stay suspended, you need to work hard. By using the water effectively you will achieve the right intensity of the exercise. Water pushes back only as hard as you push against it. You realize that the water is so powerful; therefore, adequate strength and endurance are necessary to get the best results from the exercise. Workouts can be as gentle or as hard as you decide to make them. You soon become comfortable in the aquatic environment and begin to enjoy the unique fitness
training.

Exercising aerobically in the shallow water makes the heart pound and the lungs fill up with oxygen while focusing on the cardio-respiratory fitness. This boosts energy, reduces stress, and calms the body. As you age, exercise regularly to increase your vitality, endurance, flexibility, and balance—things that tend to decrease with age. Regular aerobic exercise prevents heart disease, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, controls body weight, and improves cardiovascular fitness. Stroke, depression, osteoporosis, and arthritic patients’ reports show they suffer from less pain and disability when they do aquafit exercises. Continually, we keep huffing and puffing, filling our lungs with more oxygen. We become aware of air that we cannot see and seldom think about it. But we breathe about 5000 gallons of air every day, and without it we would survive only a few short minutes. Our muscles and organs need to get that extra oxygen, so we exercise
aerobically.

The focus is on cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, and endurance. The target heart rate for the cardio-respiratory exercise is between 60 and 80% of the maximum heart rate for your age. Maximum heart rate is determined by using the formula 220 minus age x 10 intensity. To achieve these benefits we walk, jog, kick, ski, jump, ski cross country, do rocking horse, and incorporate our jumping jacks while in the water. We use dumbbells and noodles (styrofoam tubes) to improve muscular strength and endurance by overloading the muscle groups continually and rhythmically. We need a strong heart and set of lungs to deliver life-giving oxygen to the muscles. The last group of exercises is for improving balance, something that we can lose as we
age.

I am very fond of the Jacuzzi-hot tub. Before I get into the hot tub, I sit on its edge and place my feet against the jets for about 10 minutes to get the soles of my feet energized by this form of reflexology. Experience the great feeling when you place your hands loosely against the jets. I have been able to utilize as many as 3 jets at the same time on various parts of my body. My hands and fingers get energized in the same
way.

After a track and field championship, I make a straight dash to the hot tub to calm down my aching muscles. This, I truly believe, is the salvation for my busy body. I love this and have done it for years. With warm-water pool therapy the water temperature should be 90° or warmer. This therapy improves balance, stretches muscles, relieves pressure on the spine, begins to strengthen the muscles in the body, and soothes us physically and
emotionally.

After morning aqua fit classes, while I am eating breakfast and reading a newspaper, I find myself dozing off into my porridge because I have worked so hard in the swimming
pool.

It is much easier to maintain a positive attitude when we enjoy good health. Meeting my regular aquafit chums three times a week keeps me engaged with other people and helps me to maintain a positive outlook on life. I make a conscious effort to be extroverted and energetic. I believe that optimists have fewer physical and emotional difficulties, enjoy higher energy levels, and are happier and calmer. I am so grateful to have this opportunity for exercise and community. I am also enrolled in the Healthy Aging Study with the B.C. Cancer
Agency.

On March 10, 2009 at the Seymour Golf and Country Club more than 90 family, friends and neighbours celebrated my 90 birthday. On the occasion of my birthday, one of my aquafit chums wrote this
poem:

So Olga is ninety
Oh how can that be!
She acts like she might be
Fifty one, two or three.
Six in the morning she’s sure to be up,
Rarin’ to go just like a young pup.
She scoots out the back of her house it’s been found,
Where the “Fountain of Youth”
bubbles up through the ground.
There she gargles and brushes and takes a good sip
Then just to be sure she partakes in a dip.
Next it’s off to a track, a game or a meet
To break a few records, accomplish some feat.
It’s really embarrassing here in the pool,
She makes us feel lazy (with cause as a rule)
She shows us all up with the flick of a wrist,
To us it’s all work— to her mill, it’s just grist.
It’s become quite annoying—she’s medal-some too—
Big gold ones on ribbons of red and of blue.
But enough of this fooling it’s all said in jest
And we want her to know that she’s simply the best.
We’ve all agreed—without one nay-sayer
That she’ll always be our “most valuable player”.
Happy Birthday,
Olga!

June MacDonald
Aquafit
Plus
Club
West Vancouver Aquatic
Centre

I truly believe that to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a cheerful disposition you must seek out the company of others, be eager to meet people, and to establish new
friendships.

Camaraderie is the key to success when dealing with all of the sadness, frustration, and stress that life can bring. Research has shown that the healthiest people who live the longest enjoy the company of the most friends. People around the world, who live the longest usually have wide social networks as well as a sense of purpose. A connection to others helps to combat unhealthy
self-absorption.

A lack of connectivity may be the No. 1 problem in the modern world. People sit glued to their TVs watching mindless programs for hours, or sit at their computers communicating with people living thousands of miles away, but they can’t or won’t go for a walk around the block. Just saying you’re going to achieve a goal or fulfill a promise is not enough; you actually have to get up and follow through. Do it for yourself because you’re worth it. And remember, when you have something to offer and contribute to your community and neighbourhood, everyone profits from the
effort.