Your Lifestyle

Still Inspiring: October - June Laszlo

The move from my family home to the retirement community has been very good for me. My husband died several years ago and I began to feel a bit on my own. I do some work in Canberra for the Council of the Ageing and I began to realise that if you're going to move into a different living environment as you age, then it's better to do it sooner rather than later. So I made up my mind that I would move out of the house and into this community. Which I did. I'm now seventy-nine and my lifestyle hasn't changed at all since I moved in. I still drive and I still keep up my interest in the organisations I work with.

I have been involved with women's groups for many years. My husband and I went to live in Tamworth when I finished my articles of law. I was a solicitor and he was a schoolteacher and I was asked to join the women's service club, Quota. I found it quite to my liking. There was the social side of it but also, it was run very efficiently and this was when the structure of organisations first started to interest me.

Since that time, I have found myself working in various capacities in a number of organisations. The National Council of Women has been a large interest to me. It's a part of the International Council of Women which has organisations in many countries and has consultative status with the United Nations. It works through a number of standing committees which set out to monitor various areas: sustainable developments, social issues, human affairs, status of women and so on. And make representations to government. Immigration law for example, is an area of concern now.

For the last three years I've been on the resolutions committee for the tri-annual conference and I'm just coming to the end of that task now. State councils are invited to submit resolutions on the areas that they see government action is needed. Resolutions result from that at a national level. It's an editing role, I have. Resolutions come in and they have to be in proper form and it has to be considered whether they are likely to be effective. Whether they present properly the issues they are attempting to present. It's a legal-eye role and an ordinary language role. And it's an interesting job. It is the sort of thing I like to undertake, one where I think I can probably be most useful.

I'm on the Board of Management of the Canberra Seniors Centre, the oldest seniors centre in Canberra. It was set up in 1965 and it's been going along in the same old role right up to about now when we started to realise that with demographic changes and baby boomers coming up and so on, perhaps we could do things a bit differently and improve things. So we had consultants prepare a strategic plan which we're starting to put into effect at the moment.

It means changing the constitution (this is the sort of thing I find myself working on) and setting up several committees. Our premises need updating and we need to look at the whole and think how can we use our spaces better. We're putting in a kiln for example, for a pottery class. We've had a new dance floor put in recently. We also want to look at our activities and decide how these can be improved. And so it goes on. We've been able to draw some new expertise onto our board and we've started a partnership with a large building firm. Our hope is that they might perhaps complement some of our activities.

Older women are heavily represented in the women's organisations that I know about because they seem to be able to afford the time. There are so many more demands on younger people, so it leaves us, who have more time, carrying many cans really. It's certainly good for us because we don't want to retire and then sit at home, staring at the television.

We worry about the ones coming after us. Our grandchildren. We are very concerned. We see things happening. The whole pace of change. The different emphasis. Environmental matters primarily, I suppose. The fact that we don't think it's going to be as good a physical world to live in for those coming after us. And also, very much the changes in the way people do things. Consumerism is one of these plagues that has distorted our values and I think that we are starting to leave behind the values that have been very important to us. Our consideration for other people, the ability to find pleasure in simple things, an understanding of our history….

So we feel that we still have things we can do. And one gives as much time as one is able to.