We live quite close by Smiths Falls, and decided to visit the last of their three museums on a warm, sunny, fall day. (1. Train Museum 2. Rideau Canal Museum 3. Heritage House Museum)Behold my surprise when I find an amazing doll house in one of the rooms on the top floor of the museum.
To preface this story, the news is full of dire warnings about the silver tsunami. There are waiting lists for long-term care, and numerous articles about alternative level care (ALC) patients in hospitals, pejoratively called 'bed blockers', as if they aren't entitled to nursing care, which is limited in retirement homes. Nurses are few and far between in said homes. Many die there, without the benefits of the attention of nurses, and the pain killers and/or CAD pumps that ensure that death is painless.
Some suffer when their lives change, depression in seniors is common, yet change is the only thing some can depend upon. Ill-health, the death of friends and family works hard on the psyche. What do you do without "something to do, someone to love, something to hope for?"Many live creative lives.
"It keeps me out of the marble orchard," it says in the article on display at the museum. "You've got to have something to keep you busy." Spencer Pincott began this project in 1995 and finished it in 1997, where it was put on display. Keeping busy is important.
This man, Spencer Pincott, who experienced World War II from an aircraft, flying jets, spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair, his last months in bed.
Spencer Woodring Pincott
(April 14, 1915 - 2011)
Peacefully on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at Rideau Ferry Country Home, Spencer Woodring Pincott entered into rest. Spencer was in his 97th, year. He was born in Montreal in 1915. A graduate of Trinity College, Port Hope he later served in the Air Force during WWII. Predeceased in 1992 by his wife Joan. Spencer and Joan moved to Perth over 30 years ago and enjoyed life in this picturesque town. His love of woodwork led him to building replicas of the Perth and Smiths Falls Museums, which are still on display and many other replicas of period homes.
4 comments:
How wonderful is this, Jenn? Incredible detail in such small objects.
97 is a grand old age but it seems his last few years weren't very nice, especially in bed.
Meanwhile, the fact that baby-boomers are growing old shouldn't be news. It's been expected for a long, long time. "Silver tsunami" indeed. My husband and I plan on staying in our little house until they "carry us out feet first"!
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel
The mini-house is adorable and wonderful craftsmanship. I hated to read what people are saying about (well about me and my contemporaries I guess...we being just ahead of the baby boomers in having the audacity to turn old. Cheez! Bed-blockers? Silver tsunami? HOw disgusting. How perfectly horrible. What are they thinking about doing -- putting the elderly on an iceberg?
This looks wonderful! I love dollhouses! I made one once, but it was not a very good one and eventually ended up in the trash. I saved all the little furniture and little things I had made...needlework pillows, rug, bellpull, etc. I loved the fun of making stuff from whatever I had more than anything else. Maybe some day I will do another one or just a room in a box.
Amazing! It looks like it has been carefully researched and made.
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