Home show is back
Dear Editor:
The 43rd Fergus Lions Home and Leisure show has faded into history. After a two-year halt due to COVID lockdowns, it was great to be back. Exhibitors and the public all seemed happy for the return of this event. The ‘Bouncy Castle’ was a tremendous hit with the kids.
We held a door prize draw near the conclusion of the show and the winners received gift cards from Ron Wilkins Jewellers, Shoetopia and Freshco.
We had 28 ‘Colour me In’ Lions submissions, and the talent of the youngsters was awesome. Although not meant to be a contest, we felt that the efforts should be recognized. With the assistance of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre Wellington, we selected the three entries that stood out and Tim Horton’s gift cards were issued.
Top entry was by Kendra Jodi Hocksema, with runners up Evelyn Shashiashvili and Ried Homer-Azeredo. Our thanks to everyone who made a submission.
The Lions 44th Home and Leisure Show will be held on May 3,4,5 2023. See you there.
Brian Martin,
Fergus Lions Club
Classy act
Dear Editor:
Hats off to the Elora Community Theatre group.
I had the opportunity to attend Cat on a Hot Tin Roof last Saturday at the Fergus Grand Theatre, (thanks Jay & family). It was such a pleasant surprise to see such an excellent show, put on by “class A” caliber actors and actresses, stage hands, etc. Well done everyone — I will be back.
Willow Hobson,
Elora
Just a different place
Dear Editor:
I have attached a poem that I think would be suitable for Mother’s Day, which has just passed. It was written by Emily Perl Kingsley circa 1987. It describes perfectly in my opinion what it is like raising child with a disability:
“I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability-to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this…
When you are going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michaelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After month’s of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.
But there is a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for awhile and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills…and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.
But … if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.
Emily Perl Kingsley”
Sytske Drijber
Rockwood