Working with seniors often entails working with someone who has just recently lost a spouse. Coping with the loss is a huge adjustment as is having to take over the family finances. Often too, the health of the students is unstable or failing. Sometimes students are hard of hearing or visually impaired. Helen has also been disturbed by the poverty and loneliness some of her students deal with on a day-to-day basis. For some, alcohol abuse is a serious problem.

"We can work around most of these problems," Helen said with determination. "It's not easy but we do what we can to convince the students that learning is possible. It can be harder to learn as you get older but we tell them, 'We're not getting you ready for university. We are just going to teach you enough, so that you can become a little more independent, so that you can enjoy a book once in a while or keep up to date with the newspaper.'"

I never realized how many similarities there are between young adults and seniors enrolled in literacy programs. Losing a spouse is similar to separating from or being deserted by a spouse. Failing health isn't just a condition of age. Often, a health problem or a job injury is the reason a younger student enrolls in a program as he is no longer able to do the physical work he once was. Seniors aren't always able to drive to a lesson because they no longer have a licence while a younger person may not be able to drive to the lesson because he is unable to afford the insurance for a vehicle.

Low self-esteem, loneliness, substance abuse: Toni talked about the problems following the little ones from Grade 2 to young adulthood. How many of the students in Toni's ABE classroom will eventually become lonely, undereducated seniors?

I wondered what resources Helen was using for her program. She explained that she is encouraging the tutors to recognize the knowledge that seniors bring to their tutoring sessions. "The seniors have wonderful stories to tell and the tutors are going to write down those stories. Then we can use the stories as reading and teaching materials."

We talked about the fact that a 10-year-old person who isn't able to read well has had to cope and survive twice as long as the average literacy student in most of the volunteer literacy programs and/or adult upgrading classes. Helen feels for that reason alone seniors deserve special attention. "The seniors of our communities have lived longer and have experienced more. They deserve our interest and our respect. I have pounded a lot of pavement and talked to a lot of people and I hope by this that the attitude our there will change. It makes me angry and sad when I talk to some people and hear the negative things they have to say about seniors. Sometimes I almost feel like I could cry because I can't understand how people can be so blind to the situation."

Helen is a capable, confident woman whose determination lends great strength to the One Voice Program. "I believe in what I am doing," she said. "I believe in it so much that I just can't see it not succeeding."

Leana poked her head into the back room to remind me of the time. We were planning to drive to Brooks for the afternoon. I thanked Helen for taking time to speak with me and left her banging away on a typewriter, getting a press release ready for the local paper.

The prairies stretched for miles around us on the hour long drive west on Highway One to Brooks. It was cold and clear and the night had left a skiff of snow on the ground.

When we got to Brooks, Leana dropped me off at BONNIE ANNICCHIARICO's house, promising to return in an hour after she finished her errands in town. Bonnie was on the front porch to greet me.