{"id":2230,"date":"2022-08-01T20:43:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T00:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=2230"},"modified":"2022-08-01T20:43:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T00:43:35","slug":"seniors-living-under-lockdown-our-time-is-precious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=2230","title":{"rendered":"Senior’s living under lockdown: “Our time is precious”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Winfield<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the COVID-19 lockdowns hit in March 2020, Ontario seniors living in retirement homes and long-term care homes were subject to some of the tightest restrictions.<\/p>\n

Dennis Bayley, 86, and his wife L. Patricia Bayley, 85, lived through the very strictest lockdowns and safety measures because Village of Taunton Mills Retirement Home, where they have resided for five years, also has a long-term care facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve only just been able to go out for a meal for the first time in two years,\u201d Dennis said, \u201cand there are still protocols for what we can and can\u2019t do. It has been hard for some of the residents who haven\u2019t been able to see their latest grandchildren and the like, but most of them agree it\u2019s the right thing to do to keep us healthy and I haven\u2019t heard of any complaints to management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis and Patricia, however, did not see only being allowed out for essential reasons as leaving them with nothing to do, but instead as an opportunity to take on new activities that were fulfilling and rewarding. \u201cWe\u2019re in our waning years and time is well and truly against us, so there is none to lose. We should be using our time in a positive way, keeping our minds and bodies active and staying interested in a variety of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate how precious he considers his time, Dennis recalls a situation when he needed to renew his driving license and was stuck in a long line at the Ontario Service Centre. \u201cI asked if I could have the attention of everyone in the line, then explained that the time I\u2019d spend waiting would be a significant proportion of the rest of my life. Even though I was joking, they sent me to the front of the line!\u201d<\/p>\n

Patricia, who has been married to Dennis since 1960, strives to use her own time just as wisely. So, when the lockdowns struck, they both saw an opportunity to embark on a series of projects they might otherwise not have gotten around to with all the commitments of pre-pandemic life.<\/p>\n

The first joint challenge the couple took on was getting as fit and well as possible, in case either of them did need to fight off COVID-19. \u201cIn March 2020 we set ourselves a goal of one million extra steps by the end of the year using a treadmill, a cross-trainer, or by walking,\u201d Dennis said, \u201cand we were done by November.\u201d He trimmed five inches off his waistline and said it also helped that the couple couldn\u2019t eat out.<\/p>\n

For his main solo project, Dennis decided he would learn to draw left-handed. Far from being a hare-brained scheme, this was an experiment that had roots in his childhood. \u201cI\u2019m naturally left-handed, but in school they\u2019d hit you over the hand with a ruler every time you used your left hand, so I had to become right-handed. After 80 years of using my right hand, I picked up a scrap of paper to see if I could go back to drawing left-handed, and now I draw better with my left hand than my right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis\u2019s drawing experiment became the subject of a Penn State University blog by Professor Emerita of Psychology Dr. Clare Porac, a researcher with an international reputation in the field of human lateral preferences including handedness. She noted the clear progress he\u2019d made in improving his left-handed sketches, acknowledging it may well have been easier because he\u2019s naturally a left-hander.<\/p>\n

When he wasn\u2019t sketching or exercising, Dennis found time to support Patricia in what was perhaps the couple\u2019s most ambitious project during the lockdowns. Patricia is an accomplished poet whose love for writing was born as soon as she was able to print. When COVID hit, her poetry began to touch on the emotions and thoughts people were experiencing in those early days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Patricia Bayley published a book of poems during the pandemic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Videos of Patricia reading her poetry had been viewed thousands of times on Facebook, and in April 2020 she was asked to read out one of her poems on CTV News, reaching 1.7 million households, according to the Nielsen ratings. \u201cPeople we knew from all over were calling us to say they\u2019d seen Patricia on the TV,\u201d Dennis said, \u201cand they were asking if she had more poems we could send them. So, compiling Patricia\u2019s poetry into a book became our next project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patricia got to work on tidying up and curating the poems, while Dennis looked into getting the book published. \u201cIt turned out it would cost us about $10,000 to publish, so I learned how to do everything but the printing myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI designed the book cover and interior layout, determined the trim size and material specifications, and edited public domain photos to illustrate each poem.\u201d He said the retirement home\u2019s staff helped with typing and a close friend provided technical assistance with formatting.<\/p>\n

Six months later, the book \u2013 called Life\u2019s Journey<\/em> \u2013 was ready to be sent off for printing, and the first print shipment sold out in four days. The second and third prints were quickly snapped up too, and a fourth is on the way. \u201cWe got advice online for pricing and marketing the book, which we\u2019re self-distributing, but most of the sales have been through word of mouth and we can\u2019t keep it in stock,\u201d Dennis said.<\/p>\n

Life\u2019s Journey <\/em>has been accepted for inclusion in Whitby Library, where it will be appearing in the Indie Publishers collection later in 2022, and Patricia\u2019s COVID-themed poems have been archived there. She is writing a monthly poem for the in-house Newsletter of Taunton Mills and convening a monthly poetry appreciation group for fellow residents.<\/p>\n

Despite their successes, Dennis is sure the couple will not rest on their laurels. \u201cOur time is simply too precious a commodity to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Winfield When the COVID-19 lockdowns hit in March 2020, Ontario seniors living in retirement homes and long-term care homes were subject to some […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSenior's living under lockdown: "Our time is precious" - Active Senior's Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=2230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senior's living under lockdown: "Our time is precious" - Active Senior's Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Adam Winfield When the COVID-19 lockdowns hit in March 2020, Ontario seniors living in retirement homes and long-term care homes were subject to some […] Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=2230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Active Senior's Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-02T00:43:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dennis-and-L.-Patricia-Bayley.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1176\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"active\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/\",\"name\":\"Active Senior's Digest\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=2230#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dennis-and-L.-Patricia-Bayley.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dennis-and-L.-Patricia-Bayley.jpg\",\"width\":1456,\"height\":1176,\"caption\":\"Dennis Bayley and his wife L. 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