THE PYRAMID

A lie was told to hide a deed,

And as the days went by

There came a sudden powerful need,

To hide that spoken lie.

And then the whole thing tumbled flat

And there was no excuse,

So friends, don't try to build like that,

There isn't any use.

This ancient poem still fits into many present day circumstances and worthy of note today. My older sister Helen, age 92, became a dental missionary in Ivory Coast in Africa. She was so happy to inform me that our two nearby nieces were planning to become medical doctors and she was donating most of her savings and able to send them $2,500.00 for each of them. It meant so much for Helen as she reminded me that Canada is so short of doctors because they are importing doctors who had graduated from the university in south Africa who then moved to Canada. They are wonderful doctors but that leaves a serious shortage in Africa. So I agreed to help out by loaning these two "doctors to be" $30,000.00 interest free to help out. I asked their mother, my niece to not mention my name to them so they would be encouraged to try hard. "Oh no Auntie because they think so much of you and they will try even harder to succeed with their hopes and dreams.

Last July brought my 90th birthday. My eyesight is failing and jobs for people my age with failing sight have great difficulty. The two students say they do not want to be doctors anymore and my loan to their parents is all spent. Both students are no longer interested in being doctors. With one more year at university they could become nurses which are in short supply here. I contacted the Vernon courthouse about this debt and the responsibility of their parents in connection with the money their mother had received from my account at Dominion Securities. The Judge was very nice but said he would exit the court room and let all four of us talk it over. Both of these students have found husbands and have been busy with vacations during the years, including flying to tropical islands during Canada's winter months. So far the parents have been unwilling to help their daughters. It may be just the mother since their father may not have known about the loan but he did come with her to the court hearing and knew the money had been received from my account at Dominion Securities.

My own son Ken graduated as the top student from the University of Victoria and has helped me out. He put himself through that university with no help from us and did it with summer jobs and scholarships. With his ability and knowledge my husband was a top student during his lifetime also but died in 2003 from harmful materials used to developing computers which were later found to be harmful in development of them.