Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Official Report 898KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our leader today is Dianna Wolfson, who is a participant in the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, Faith in Older People and Interfaith Scotland.

Thank you for the opportunity to take part in time for reflection. The last time that I addressed the Parliament was in 2003, when I was an active retired woman in my mid-60s. Now I am an active older woman in my late 70s. When do I become elderly? Will I be invited back when I am 90?

As a trustee of Faith in Older People for the past few years, I have been able to reflect on the needs of older people beyond the physical dimension. The spiritual aspect of their lives becomes more compelling as they come face to face with their impending mortality.

In the Jewish scriptures there is a commandment to honour the elderly no matter what their contribution to society. High-profile elderly people command much respect. Her Majesty the Queen is approaching her 90th birthday, and we remember Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and many others, but what about ordinary people whose achievements are unknown and unrecognised except by their families and their communities? They often become just a name above a hospital bed. My late mother embodied her own philosophy for life, which was that you have to be a good person. Few people in Scotland will know of her good deeds, nor those of many other remarkable older people throughout our country.

In 1998, a book of photographs taken in a Marie Curie hospice by Colin Dickson, called “Remaining Human”, was published. In his preface he said that he had taken the photographs to show that faced with the prospect of death, most people remain completely human. He said:

“Until you are dead you are still alive … their lives are still going on and they can laugh and be sad and be generous and be cruel, in other words be people just like other people.”

Those observations could apply equally to the elderly.

Through my involvement with the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, I have had the privilege of interviewing older members of our community. I have learned of the challenges that they faced when they were growing up during the war, and of their service to our country both in wartime and in peace. It is so important to hear their voices and experiences, and their contribution to the Scottish story.

I will finish by quoting Rabbi Berel Wein, who said:

“May we all be blessed to come to the fullness of our lives with all our days attached to us in serenity and achievement.”