LETTERS
Readers Reply
I loved the May editor’s letter about where to settle in retirement. My recommendation for you is to look into moving to New Brunswick. We live in Cambridge-Narrows, a village less than an hour from Oromocto, Fredericton, and Sussex. Saint John is an hour away, Moncton, a little more than that, and the PEI bridge is about two hours away. Most of the people who live here have been here for many generations, but sometimes we get CFAs (come-from-aways), like me, and we love it here, too. I think a lot of people are like you—looking for a safe nest.
Wherever you go, I wish you and your family the very best. You’ll know in your heart and your head what feels right for you.
Touch the earth.
Marilyn Erb
Cambridge-Narrows, NB
Many of us dream about where we would like to settle down; that’s a good thing. We should all spend more time dreaming: it’s good for the mind, body, and soul. But as time marches on, reality sets in and things we once dreamt about we now look at in a much more practical way. As we grow more mature, things look different, challenges change, things that never crossed our minds when we were young and carefree.
My advice is to place a lot of credence in your gut feeling; intuition is very real. If you feel that you should be making a move, you probably should. If you feel that you should be downsizing for practical or financial reasons, then you probably should. If you feel that you should be relocating within the neighbourhood where you have spent most of your adult life and are comfortable with the services and amenities, then you probably should (rather than move to some faraway tropical island). My wife, Eileen, and I faced this same conundrum, and we are pleased with the decisions that we made because they felt right.
One last, very important piece of advice: don’t procrastinate. If you feel that now is the time to make some of these decisions, do it now, when you are physically and mentally capable. Waiting until you have to make a move can be one of the worst mistakes of a lifetime.
Donald Cangiano
Oakville, ON
Oops!
I was really enjoying May’s “Create Your Own Royal Tour” until I came to the part about Queen Victoria becoming queen on the death of her grandfather. Wrong! She succeeded to the throne on the death of her uncle, William IV. Victoria’s grandfather was George III. His eldest son, also George, became George IV when his father died. George IV’s only child, Princess Charlotte, died in childbirth at 21, and the Crown passed to his brother William. None of William IV’s children survived to adulthood; upon his death, therefore, the Crown passed to his niece, Victoria, whose father died when Victoria was eight months old.
Barbara Jean Moore
Calgary
Editor’s note: In “Living With Low Vision,” March 2016, Sarah Fraser of the University of Ottawa’s Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences was misidentified as Susan Fraser. We regret the error.
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