Time to be positive about age

SUE LISTER is one of those people who makes things happen. She bristles with energy and enthusiasm. This is good news for older people in York because Sue, who pleads guilty to being 60, is fed up with the negative image so often associated with older age, and is determined to change these perceptions.

Her solution is a two week-long festival in York to celebrate all the things that people aged over 50 get up to. Whether it is belly dancing, model boat building, singing, theatre, story telling, yoga, chess, bridge or sport, Sue wants to know.

There are lots of older people in York leading active lives. Writing, painting, cooking, doing sports; getting involved in a whole range of arts and crafts; running businesses and charities and holding down responsible jobs. But because they are older, all that activity and enthusiasm goes largely unnoticed.

"When was the last time you saw older people celebrated in York?" she asks, leaning forward and gesturing eloquently with one hand.

"What is your image of older people in York? If they are invisible, or not particularly visible, isn't it time we put them centre stage?

"Isn't it time to alter the stereotype of elderly wallflowers sitting round the walls of nursing homes, into an image of people who have honed their skills for many years and are now happily expressing their talent in a multitude of ways?

"There are a lot of older people writing, being creative, helping other people. The spotlight has to be put on them so their image in people's minds is altered. A York 50-plus festival would be the exact way to do it."

Invisible isn't the way you would describe Sue. She's a one-woman, walking challenge to stereotypes everywhere. She casually drops into the conversation that her partner, Ann, is a woman, and that she herself has just returned from a 'gay and grey' conference in Scarborough. (This has nothing to do with her plans for an over-50s festival, which will be fully inclusive and open to all).

She switches effortlessly from stories of her childhood in India, where she once performed in a play in front of Nehru, to tales about her Wing Commander father George. On his retirement from the RAF he became a maths teacher and designed a hands-on mathematical learning tool for children, Lister Logic, which sold all over the world.

"He used to play with this thing on the floor, and said he was the only maths adviser he knew who had housemaid's knee," she says. "He was a very fun-loving, creative and imaginative person." Qualities she has obviously inherited in abundance.

Sue's working life has revolved mainly around the performing arts and work with elderly and disabled people.

Born in Leeds, she had the classic military childhood, the family moving all over the world as they followed her father's postings. She then went to Leeds University to study English, before training as a drama teacher.

In the 1970s she spent five years in New Zealand managing a modern dance company, then returned to the UK to become a social worker in Ealing, London. She followed that by a stint working at a day centre for elderly physically disabled people in Shepherd's Bush, where she discovered a radical edge.

"The council was saying things such as 'you cannot have any more home help' and 'when you come out of hospital you're not going to be able to get help or free meals," she recalls.

"I said 'I cannot be doing with this, let's go on a demo'. So I led demos through to the city hall with them her elderly, disabled clients in their wheelchairs, and we said 'you cannot cut back on basic services if people are on the breadline already'. My manager said to me 'Sue, you cannot do this. You're supposed to be representing the council!' and I said 'well, I'm sorry, but it's not fair!'"

In 1982 she took off for Canada, where she lived for 14 years - most of that time spent running the Vancouver-based Theatre Terrific, which featured people with a range of disabilities performing alongside able-bodied actors.

Since she returned to the UK and came to live in York a few years ago, she has worked at York University as the administrator of Wentworth College. But she is also the artistic director of York's all-woman Real People Theatre Company, which she runs from her home near York.

Sue is clearly not a woman to mess with and when she says she will do something, she will do it.

Her plans for an over-50s festival in York have got far beyond the talking stage. She has set a provisional date - September 24 to October 2, timed to overlap with International Older Person's Day on October 1.

She has enlisted the enthusiastic backing of York Older People's Assembly - fantastic, is how assembly chairman Don Parlabean describes the festival plan - and the support of City of York Council.

"We support the initiative and we will be pleased to make a small financial contribution," says Peter Boardman, the council's cultural events organiser. "It is all about celebrating the fact that when you get to a certain age you don't just pack up and disappear. Older people have so much to offer."

Mr Boardman is already talking about working with Sue's festival steering group for future years.

Sue has also been lobbying arts groups, charities and other organisations across the city, everybody from Age Concern to local literary magazine Aesthetica, local theatres to City Screen, York.

She is keen for any groups or individuals who want to be involved to get in touch. It will be their festival, she says. She sees herself not as the organiser, simply a 'catalyst'. "All we're doing is spreading the word, so that people can use their initiative and creativity to come out of the woodwork," she says.

"We have someone who is willing to put a programme together. Now all we need is for groups around the city to schedule events in the week leading up to October 1, International Older Person's Day, they all go in the programme and, Presto, we have the start of an annual festival.

"Drama groups could stage plays or scenarios, musical groups could schedule concerts, choirs could sing, dance groups could stage a performance or organise a dance, arts groups could organise exhibitions, craft groups could display their creations and writing groups could organise readings.

"It is about overcoming the negative image. I've heard of a 64-year-old belly dancer in Wakefield and I want to get her involved. In China they have something called the Silver Sage Beauty Contest. I like it! If they can do it, why can't we?

"It isn't only for older people. It is for younger people to engage with older people as well. But it could take over the city for the week and really put the focus on older people for a change."

And about time, too.

If you would like to find out more about plans for a York over 50s festival, contact Sue on 01904 488870.

Regular Evening Press letter writer Margaret Lawson says it is time to treat the elderly well

I AM incensed at the ignorant way in which elderly people are often spoken about. All lumped together and swept under the carpet, not by everyone, thankfully, but by so many mean-spirited people, sometimes encouraged by the media, all in supposedly civilised English society.

Perhaps it is reading about a woman trying to find suitable care for her poorly father or my own significant birthday looming that has brought this on.

Whatever the reason, it's time to speak out.

"Old women", men too, are often treated as a joke even when they may have been useful citizens, heroes or heroines. It's as though we know nothing, have no experience and are invisible.

This is especially true if we choose to go grey and accept the ravages of nature. No wonder hair dye and wearing toupees, various 'diets' and different types of cosmetic surgery are essentials in the battle to stay forever young - outwardly. Of course, inwardly we may be sparkling, dancing and feel 16.

What do we do? Put up and shut up? Volunteer to be lined up and shot?

No - it is time to treat the elderly well, as some countries do.

First, attitudes must change and a generous helping hand should be given to those who really do care.

Updated: 10:36 Thursday, April 28, 2005