Longtime friend’s book has an enduring message: Our ability to love is ageless | Opinion
For all its ills, there is a lot of goodness that comes with growing old. Many of us suffer from creaky joints and other ills, and we don’t move about as fast as we used to, but I have found that years of living can be a blessing in many ways. For instance, you just can’t beat the wisdom that comes with growing old. I know this because ever so often I find myself wishing I’d know back then, when I was young, what I know now.
As my friend Annie L. Ford said to me recently:
“I think one of God’s blessings to us as we grow old is that we become wiser,” she said. “Growing old by itself is not enough to become wise. It’s being able to learn from what we have experienced that makes us wise.” I though a while about her comment and I realized how right, and wise, she is.
Ford is a native Miamian. I met her when we both attended Booker T. Washington Junior/Senior High School in Overtown, graduating in the same class of 1956. Ford and I bonded over our love of singing. We were both in the concert choir.
Back then, Ford was Annie Julia Lucky; I was Beatrice Loretta Johnson. I got married a year after graduation and Ford went on to graduate from Virginia Union University. Our paths didn’t cross again until nearly 50 years later, when she was back home in Miami and invited me to the 100th birthday party for her mother.
Ford is a cheerleader and a friend, a gentle woman who isn’t ashamed to say she is a Christian. “I love the Lord,” she said. “And I know His love is the enduring power of love. He gives us that love and we are then capable of loving others because of that love.”
It is because of the power of love that Ford was moved to write her recently published book, “The Enduring Power of Love – And Women of a Certain Age.”
“The reason I wrote the book,” Ford said, “is because I want people to know that age has nothing to do with love, that love is ageless. We can love until God brings us home. And when we leave, we take that love with us.”
In her book Ford gives snippets of her life and the lives of others and how the effects that the enduring power of love has on each of their lives.
A widow, Ford is the mother of a daughter and two grandchildren. She lives in Richmond Heights in the house she grew up in. Her book is $24.99 and is available at Writers Write, Inc. For more information call 786-805-8272.
Concert to feature Klezmer and Hanukkah music
So… We made it through the Thanksgiving holiday. Now there is Christmas peeking at us from just around the corner. With that said, there are some events leading up to the holiday season that might interest you.
Jewish Senior Citizens are in for a treat, when United Jewish Generations presents a Grand Klezmer Concert to feature klezmer and Hanukkah music. The concert will be at 2 p.m. on Dec. 2, at the Shul of Bal Harbour, 9540 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach.
The concert will feature cantor Zevy Steiger, a world-renowned tenor from Belgium. He will be accompanied by Russian violinist Alex Mikhaylovsky, pianist Richi Shapiro and saxophonist Yishmael Verdara.
The seniors will also be treated with a cheese and wine tasting session and other Hanukkah delicacies. Tickets are $18 each and $10 for senior citizens and can be purchased at the door. The shul will be divided into two sections: upstairs for those who will wear masks and social distance, and the downstairs section, where there will be no restrictions. Each section will have open seating.
The event is being hosted and co-sponsored by the Shul of Bal Harbour.
United Jewish Generations is a Chabad organization that serves retirees and senior citizens throughout South Florida. Please reserve for this event by calling (305) 770-4540 or email reserve@unitedjewishgenerations.com.
Menorah-lighting ceremony in the Gables
The city of Coral Gables will have its annual Festival of Lights Menorah Lighting Ceremony and Hanukkah celebration from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 5 at Ponce Circle Park, 2800 Ponce de Leon Blvd. The celebration will feature a firetruck parade that will include a large menorah and a chocolate gelt (chocolate coins) drop. The free event is open to everyone and will have live musical entertainment, carnival rides and crafts for children, complimentary Rita’s Italian Ices, hot potato latkes, traditional Hanukkah doughnuts and other holiday treats. The event’s highlight will be the lighting of the candles on the 12-foot Menorah that will illuminate the park throughout the holiday season.
At 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28, Barnes & Noble Bookstore at 152 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables will present “It’s Hanukkah Storytime” with storyteller Chany Stolik. Dreidels and Hanukkah crafts for children will also be given out. Every child must enter a drawing to win a Hanukkah gift. This is a free event for all children and families. For more information about this event, send an email to chany@chabadgables.com.
Also, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, Chabad’s YJP invites other young Jewish professionals in their 20s and 30s to a “Menorahs and Martinis’ Hanukkah social. For more information on this event, send an email to Mina@ChabadGables.com.
Bea L Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com
