Inspiring examples of staying young in spirit

MARJORIE Gill’s letter (Yorkshire Post, July 4) was inspirational. To be fit enough to play golf, grow and freeze fruit and vegetables, bake, sew and play bridge at 87 is fantastic. It gives septuagenarians, like me, real hope for the future. Thank you Marjorie!

While on holiday recently, I met a beautiful, brave lady in a wheelchair. She told me that 25 years ago, when she had three children under five, she was bitten by a mosquito in Queensland, Australia. She was paralysed by the bite and subsequently suffered a stroke.

She then developed Parkinson’s Disease and is now awaiting an operation on her shoulder. This lady possessed an avid enthusiasm and zest for life. Her attitude was incredibly positive and she could even joke at her own misfortune. Her husband was her tower of strength and her soul mate.

Many years ago a wonderful Methodist minister, the Rev Frank Thewlis, was invited to preach at my present church. He was an elderly man and climbing the steps into the pulpit was obviously an ordeal. “The body may have become frail and feeble,” he said. Then, stretching his arms out wide, he added: “But the spirit grows younger every day.” “Hallelujah!” I remember thinking.

The lady in the wheelchair was the personification of these words. Let us hope that those of us, who do not enjoy the same good health as Marjorie Gill, will be endowed with a strong spirit which can triumph over the frailty of the body.