Last April I became a great-grandmother and having eight grandchildren who already call me “Nannie” I thought the new little one could call me GG. In June I saw an interesting story in EMC, our local newspaper, about a courageous woman who intended climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Her name just happened to be Gigi. Thinking, there had to be something there .......... I sent her an e-mail, offering to climb with her. We met at her first fundraiser, a barbeque at her home, where I met the rest of her family, including her husband Michael. I knew I wanted to help her achieve her goal and at the same time to satisfy my continuing quest for unusual challenges.

For some years I have been a volunteer for Help the Aged (Canada) with the Adopt-a-Gran Program. Having travelled to Kenya, as well as Jamaica, on behalf of this excellent organization, I have become keenly aware and increasingly troubled by the inequality that exists in our world. Women and children are at the forefront of this inequality and consequently, suffer untold misery every day of their lives.

.In my work with the grans, I was humbled by the resiliency, the determination, the generosity, the love, and the caring of the men and women I met. Many of them were struggling to look after their AIDS orphaned grandchildren. Fortunately, those sponsored through the AAG program sometimes received extra help for the children.

The paths of my life resemble the biblical story, ‘A Coat of Many Colours’: waitress, secretary, dance instructor, photographer, journalist, farmer, children’s farm program operator, antiques dealer, real estate saleswoman, photographer, journalist, tearoom and bed & breakfast owner. Add to the list, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. All have given me joy as well as a lot of hard work. Going to Kenya for the first time to work with the elderly, destitute and often ill people, I knew that all my previous experiences would help me in what I was to encounter there.

This summer I attended the Grandmothers to Grandmothers’ Gathering, hosted by the SLF in Toronto. The foundation brought one hundred grandmothers from many countries in Africa to meet, mingle, brainstorm, dance, laugh and cry with over two hundred Canadian grandmothers. It was a most inspiring event for all of us, and like a pebble in a pond, it has created ever enlarging circles here as well as in Africa.

Through workshops we learned much from one another. We wanted the African grannies to tell us what they needed and how we could help. We marched through downtown Toronto to the CBC, with banners; singing, chanting and hugging one another. As I looked back and all around me in that diverse crowd, I couldn’t help thinking that this was surely a ‘moment in time’........something that would go on being and doing and giving for a long time. To date is surely has.

As a young child, my adoption by a generous and loving couple in their ‘60s, changed my life. Even at a young age my values became their values. My mother worked tirelessly for those less fortunate. One of her tasks through her work with the Women’s Auxiliary, was helping to assemble bales of goods for people, particularly those in our Canadian North. I recall going with my Dad to the train station in Ottawa to ship the bales.

Many things contribute to my desire to help others. One is a selfish one, as I love to travel but I also love challenge. My writing and photography fit neatly into the equation as well. What’s left is really just a desire to do something meaningful. To help those less fortunate and in doing so, to learn more about the world around me.