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Ann named senior of the year in Taber |
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Tuesday, 04 March 2008 |
Ask the Kinsmen Club of Taber's Senior Citizen of the Year if she is having a good day, and she will give an enlightening response. She will say, "I always have a good day. You always have to have a good day and you always have to have a good outlook."
By Jennifer Elves
Taber Times
Ann Cudrak, 69, this year's Kinsmen Club of Taber Senior Citizen of the Year, makes the most out of life - that is part of the reason she volunteers at Parkside Manor and continuing care at the Taber Health Centre. She also keeps busy by being an active member of her church.
When she has a conflict in her schedule on days when she is supposed to volunteer, she always works something out.
"She will switch with people. She won't just say, 'I'm not coming, which some people do,' " says her daughter-in-law Lorie Cudrak. "She's very dependable. She'll work around anything they need her to do. She'll change her personal schedule."
She enjoys every minute of her volunteer work in continuing care. For six years she has been volunteering in the unit by delivering water and snacks to residents a couple times a week and more when it's needed.
"People look forward to seeing you. They're always happy and then when you smile back at them they appreciate it too," says Cudrak, who added the nurses are fun to be around as well. "You just do it because you feel you are giving something back."
She added, while it is always rewarding to volunteer, being honoured by being named Senior of the Year, makes the experience even more special.
"When they announce your name you almost freeze kind of. You're shocked," she says, adding after her name had been announced, a woman she knew had to tell her to get up and go to the front, since she was so taken aback.
She has been a member of Parkside Manor since 1999 and was nominated to be director of the kitchen committee five years ago. As director, she is in charge of the manor's monthly dinners and helps out at them.
"She's really faithful. She goes and volunteers at the hospital (too). If we're really busy and we go over the time a little bit, she says, 'I'll have to run. I'm due at the hospital,' so she's really faithful to her work at the hospital and at Parkside too," says Virginia Sinclair, president of Parkside Manor.
The monthly dinners make for a busy day because she sometimes helps with preparation, stays for cleanup and later goes to continuing care as it falls on the same day.
"It (the long day) doesn't bother me. I just keep going," says Cudrak. "It's getting out and meeting people too - that is one of the main things. A person has to get out to meet people and be with others."
She has always enjoyed kitchen work, as she was a stay-at-home mom for several years.
"I always tell the younger people now make sure you enjoy your children and do things with your children. Time goes by so fast," she says.
Cudrak, who was born and raised in Taber, moved to Sunnyside District after marrying her late husband Frank. They resided in the Sunnyside District for 16 years before moving to Hays and living there for 25 years. They moved back to Taber in 1999, and Cudrak has been here ever since.
Today, two of her sons live in Hays, the other son lives in Taber and her daughters are residing in Okotoks and Coutts. She has nine grandchildren as well.
"She's a loving and giving person. She's been a very good mother-in-law to me. I just had surgery and she's here everyday to help me," says Lorie. "She's done everything that needs to be done. She's taken the kids to activities and picked them up if I needed her to."
Along with spending time with family, she enjoys gardening, knitting and embroidery work.
"I always have to have something. I can't sit. I have to have something going and I don't watch T.V. too much. I just watch the news and the game shows. I am not too long to sit at the T.V.," she says. |
