Ida Cutler

I am in my ninetieth year. I truly believe my long life is due to my ability to laugh at myself. Also I chose the right grandparents!

I was born in Abbotsford. I once taught in one room schools in North Central B.C., one called Snowshoe.

I married a man who later led me and four children north again to a big marsh that he and his son drained and turned into a good ranch. I home taught those kids between chopping ice off water troughs and delivering lambs at 2 a.m. We sold and retired to a beautiful lake but my husband developed Alzheimer's, and after a fifteen year battle, died.

I garden, sew comfort quilts for hospitalized children, write a column for the local newspaper, and write poetry about every aspect of my life. I started writing young and was rightfully strapped for directing a rude remark about my teacher. At 18, I wrote four children's stories for the United Church Observer.

My four children are my biggest accomplishment: good productive people who have never been in jail!

The next 50 years were busy. I wrote letters only. We sold out and retired. I wrote again and entered poetry contests, was short-listed and published in four or five anthologies in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Appearances in Reflections on Water

• Poetry Vol 6, No. 1 (Winter 2005)