Uncle Frank is in the middle and Carol's mother is on the far right. Even though I'm sure they got lots of exercise on the farm, their father built a tennis court to keep them active.
From Carol's blog:
(I love the idea that Uncle Frank has a girlfriend to walk with and tell him what day it is!)
Uncle Frank, a Red Deer resident who turns 95 in May, has never lost his penchant for walking -- or his sociable instincts. Through phone calls and periodic visits, he was one of mom's regular contacts in her final years. His last trip from Alberta to B.C. to see her was in 2012, when he was 90. Nowadays, he visits his brother Joe -- who just turned 98 and lives in another seniors' facility in Red Deer -- every week.
And he still keeps in touch. On Friday, I received that rarest of rare items to slip through a mail slot these days -- a personal, handwritten letter. It was two pages of lined, notepad-sized paper, in the beautiful script inculcated in children of Uncle Frank's generation.
He's had a good winter, he said, but Joe has had a poor one, ending up in hospital with pneumonia after going outside in minus-20 temperatures. A son-in-law had a stroke; a new great-grandchild is on the way. As for himself, his sociable instincts -- and walking -- are getting him through. "I am doing much better since I got a girlfriend to go walking with and [she] tells me what day it is," he wrote. He signed off with a wish for a good year and a strong recommendation: "Keep on walking for health's sake."
