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create new displays each year without spending a fortune or having to build an addition on the house to store our seasonal treasures.

We think we’ve got it!

We call it S.O.S. – Seasonal Ornament Swap.

After the holidays, just about the time that we’re packing away our decorations, we are going to invite family and friends to an S.O.S. party. We’ll ask everyone to bring their unloved, unused and unsuitable decorations, the ones that are still really nice but just aren’t working for them anymore, to swap for a few new ones. Everyone wins!

To continue the downsizing theme, our guests can bring along extra holiday baking and maybe even left-over wine to make it even more of a celebration!

If your New Year’s Resolution is to get organized, this will be a great way to start. Surrounded by family and friends, the downsizing will be more fun and there will be lots of talking and laughter as you clear clutter.

When you return home with a few new decorations, pack them away carefully so you can enjoy them next year.

“One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”, but in order to make this a true downsizing activity, it is important to take home fewer items that you brought.

As for any leftover ornaments and decorations –donate them to your favorite charity and share the joy of the season!

Happy Holidays!
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the people who surround her. Whatever the reason, Mae is certainly a role model for aging successfully. Get up in the morning, make yourself look as good as you can, put on a smile, and then go out and DO something, is her advice.

Widowed while still in her sixties, with her only child living hundreds of miles away, not much money in the bank and a very small pension, Mae faced a bleak and lonely future. She did experience a bout of depression but through it she was aware that this was quite normal, at least for a while, and then she would have to pull herself out of it.

Sure enough after wallowing in her grief (her description) she decided to take control and improve her lot in small steps. The first was finding something to do every day. She started with volunteer work, friendly visiting at a nearby nursing home. Her attitude, “find what’s best, make the most of it and ignore the rest”, allowed her to brighten her patients’ days and her own. Best of all, she attended all of the volunteers meetings and thank you events and met several like-minded women whose company she thoroughly enjoyed. They became fast friends.

Soon she was ready for new challenges and the first was getting a job to supplement her income. For twelve years she worked part time as a cashier, setting aside her pay to use for things she really loved to do – shop for clothes and travel. Even more rewarding were the friendships she made among women of all ages, her co-workers and some of her customers.

As advancing years started to take a toll on her body and she began to experience stiffness in the joints, aching muscles and weight gain, Mae looked around for a physical activity that would keep her moving – enjoyably. She discovered golf but found it a little too expensive to enjoy regularly so replaced that sport with curling in the winter and lawn bowling in the summer.

In her late seventies she tired of the work and worry of maintaining her house and property. She sold it and used her nest egg to settle in a comfortable retirement residence. Mae was one of the youngest and certainly the most active residents and worried that she may have made a mistake but soon “ found what’s best and ignored the rest”. The best was being able to leave her job which was taking too much time from her social life. Just as important, she did not have to worry about household chores and there was somebody nearby if she needed help. She was not alone. She refers to that decision as “freedom 78”.

I celebrated Mae’s 90th birthday with her a few months ago. There was a small family contingent and a large group of friends, some of whom she drove to the party herself since she still has her car and is the favourite chauffeur at the retirement residence because she is such a good driver. She says she is going to keep driving forever because her “old bod” certainly can’t walk very far anymore. Her activities are closer to home now. Most days, especially the coldest in winter and the hottest in summer, she doesn’t go out at all. It doesn’t matter. She still gets up in the morning, makes herself look as good as she can, smiles, and then DOES something.
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My client was moving from her family home to a condominium and we were sorting items to be moved, sold or donated. On a bookshelf, there was a box of WWII medals that had belonged to her two uncles.

I mentioned that a friend of mine, Tim Stewart, Archivist for the Toronto Scottish Regiment, is an incredible resource and has provided several clients with the story behind their family war medals and memorabilia.

Although my client knew the story of the medals, she was interested in meeting with Tim to see if she could learn more.

When Tim arrived at her home, he was ushered into the dining room where a stack of paper and photos had been neatly arranged beside a cutlery box.

Now, here’s where the coincidence comes in… both uncles had been recruited in Sudbury for the Toronto Scottish Regiment and both were hard rock miners. Tim also discovered that one of the men had also served in Gibraltar.

It was at that moment Tim realized – hard rock miner and Gibraltar – that he may have served with the Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Canadian Engineers who were stationed there in 1941.

Why were Canadian Engineers at Gibraltar, you ask?

The Canadians were to carve out a subterranean hospital within the rock and create additional passageways to provide safe haven from aerial attack. The British also wanted to extend the airport runway to accommodate heavy bombers needed for the invasion of North Africa and the Canadians came up with the solution. They provided the expertise -- diamond-drilling and blasting the face of the rock, using the debris that fell into the Bay of Algeciras to extend the runway.

For their extraordinary work, the Canadians were given a commemorative medallion -- The Gibraltar Key. The medallion was in the shape of a key as Gibraltar was considered the “key” to the Mediterranean. This medallion, paid for by James Murdock of Noranda Mines, was presented to fewer than 200 tunnellers of the Royal Canadian Engineers for their removal of 140,000 tons of rock from Gibraltar.

The Gibraltar Key is a large circular medallion superimposed on a stylized key in silver – one side displays a hard rock miner, against the background of the Rock with the caption “Gibraltar 1941- 42 – Royal Canadian Engineers”. On the other side is the number and name of each recipient.

When Tim examined the contents of the cutlery box, much to his delight… there it was – a Gibraltar Key fastened to the rest of the medals. Finding a Gibraltar Key is exciting enough, but this find had an added bonus – it had been presented to a member of the Toronto Scottish Regiment and Tim, the Archivist for the Regiment, had found it, a very rare find indeed.

This Gibraltar Key now has a place of honour in the Toronto Scottish Regiment museum and my client was on hand for the unveiling of the display honouring the work done by her uncle so many years ago. What a proud moment it was for all involved.

Remembrance Day - Wednesday, November 11th

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of her parents and her sister.

A number of bags and boxes had been identified for donation, some were thrown out and others were given to family and friends. All in all, it was a challenging week.

One of our discoveries was a cardboard box, containing two of her father’s tuxedo, several ties, two cummerbunds and a shirt. These items were taken to my car and put with rest of the items to be donated.

Now, sometimes I can drive around town for weeks with items for donation in the trunk of my car. But not that day, I drove past Goodwill and immediately pulled in.

A helpful man walked over to my car to efficiently transfer everything into a bin. I drove away.

When I arrived home and checked my email, there was a letter from my client. “If you haven’t donated the tuxedo yet, I wouldn’t mind having a second look at it.” My heart stopped.
As I raced from my house and headed to Goodwill, I knew it had only been about an hour since the exchange. I was confident the blue plastic bag would still be there.

When I arrived, there had been a staff change and the new guy, although very helpful, had no idea where the contents might be. He thought it had been sorted as soon as it had arrived and the contents had likely been distributed to one of twenty or thirty other bins. Thre was no option… I started looking one bin at a time. Although I hadn’t actually packed the bag, I had a general idea of what I was looking for.

I was then directed to a bin that appeared to be one of the last ones sorted. As I began to search, I first found a tuxedo jacket, then another jacket, then two pair of trousers and finally a small plastic bag containing cummerbunds and ties. Whew!

I quickly thanked my helpful accomplice and, clutching my ‘lost’ treasures, headed home to call my client and explain what had happened.

She was unfazed.

All she said was… “Imagine, after all the stuff we let cleared out last week, you end up searching in donations bins for something I changed my mind about donating. I will now think of you as the Dumpster Diving Diva!”
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