A special Words of Wisdom edition
The OC Life family is very fond of Nancy Lodge. An avid writer to the magazine. Nancy wrote to us expressing a range of frustrations over people losing their way on certain issues. We thought it we would share some of her thoughts, here’s what she had to say:

Age: 93
Where were you born? Sydney.
If you could describe your life in one sentence what would it be? I’d say versatile.
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life? *Points to tongue* To keep my tongue quiet. *laughs*

What were your hobbies/interests growing up? Certainly gardening, I grew up in a gardening situation where my Dad had a lot of interest in it. We lived at a property called Tantallon and it had many beautiful gardens on it.

What was your naughtiest moment as a child? I said to my Mum one day, ‘Why did you send me to boarding school at such a young age?’ she said, ‘because you were naughty!’ *laughs* We used to have rubber fly swats with metal handles, they used to smack us with those. I used to take them and put them between the tank stand and the cement, in recent years there must have been a nice little lot there... *laughs*

What was your first job? Nursing, I was doing my nursing training as the war was happening. If it had lasted a few weeks longer I would have been going. I remember we used to have living quarters for the Nurses and on the second floor there were a lot of American Nurses living there and they all had these beautiful silk stockings... oh we were so jealous. *laughs* When you finished your training you then got thrown into the hospital pond *laughs* I don’t know why, it was just a tradition.

I did Nursing for years, my Husband then had a bad injury and I realised I couldn’t work Nursing and work the land. So, I’d grow the plants at home, take them into town once a week and the Western Stores used to sell them for me. My husband had cattle and sheep, a milking cow, when the children came along we realised they were both allergic to cow’s milk so we brought a goat named Penny, it was just as mischievous as I was. *laughs*

What is your favourite memory? Oh I have so many... I think perhaps my Mum and Dad. My wedding, my two children, oh all of them *laughs* just family.

What are you most proud of? I don’t know about proud, but I’ve spent my life working for the Scleroderma Association. My daughter had Scleroderma and it was undiagnosed for a long time. She worked hard to be involved and fought for others as well as herself. She also had very bad treatment with NDIS.

What will be the first thing you do when restrictions are lifted? I haven’t been out until a couple of days ago. I was taken for a drive by a friend and we went all around the outside of the city, I saw all of the beautiful trees and the water coming over the spillway! It was such a lovely outing. I adore Orange. The ability that we’ve had to grow.

How has the world changed from when you were a child? Living out in the country kept us away from a lot of the problems, but then again, there weren’t that many problems back then. When we would bring our horses into town the Police used to come up and say, have you looked after your pony today? Have you fed them and given them a drink? They were just like our parents in a way... It was a different world altogether. My best friend passed last year but during our lives we’ve always been able to talk to one another about our problems and if you had a problem you’d be able to get good, sound advice, and that’s not that easy to get these days.

Nancy says;
As an oldie, it has not been easy to keep up with a virtually changed world and I don’t seem to have made much of a job of it. I haven’t caught up with Facebook.

- I think we should be praying as a nation. I asked for prayer from our council before Easter and I didn’t hear back from anyone. I haven’t known where to move with it to get someone who is qualified to get up and lead the community into prayer. I just think it is a more complex request that we’ve had in the past. But I can remember the end of World War II when the stressful times we had in between, we as a nation would go to prayer.

- I’m interested in the Ratepayers and Resident’s Association. It stresses me that our community is so reluctant in so many areas to ensure we have a vital Local Government Council. So, if people cannot bother to see the right people reach Council Chambers, then I guess we get what we deserve.

- Mount Canobolas- the area has deteriorated in recent years, people love it, they love to visit it, go up there for a number of reasons; a view of the city and it’s fun when it snows, people like to take their meals up there. I think it would be nice if we could see a way of financing those things.  Not sure on this point have attached photo of letter though couldn’t decipher a lot of it. Happy for you to take it out if need be