Dorothy Brovold’s in love with her tech.
“I’ve got an Apple,” she tells me, her smile wide and her delight palpable. “And I’ve never had a problem. Never had a virus, it’s always fast, and I just love it. I spend a lot of time on Skype.”
Who’s the lucky Skype-ee?
“My granddaughter. I think technology has made such a difference to families. I grew up on a two-bit farm where our neighbours were miles away. Now, I can talk to my granddaughter, any time we like, wherever we are.”
We both wax lyrical about the magic of social networking and Skype. I tell her about the story I heard of an American family who sets up a big screen on their dining room table so that once a week they can have a family dinner – via Skype – with their grandmother in the Philippines.
We’re both nodding. I’m thirty-six and she’s eighty-four and we’re in this together. We both like to connect. In fact, that’s why Dorothy enjoys volunteering.
“I’ve volunteered ever since I was a teenager,” Dorothy tells me with a naughty smile. “Another girl and I – well, we used to hold dances to raise money so we could buy cigarettes for the boys overseas.”
And she’s been volunteering – and fundraising – ever since. (Minus the cigarettes.)
Later, when Dorothy was the mother of three young boys in the TriCities, there were forty kids on the waiting list to join Scouts. With a list that long, she knew her sons wouldn’t get in.
So she started a cub pack in the basement of her house. A den mother, she’d be – literally. From then on, she was constantly organizing activities, marshalling parents and kids and communities, and fundraising.
She liked the busy-ness. She liked the people. Leading community activities and fundraising was a perfect fit – these were the same reasons Dorothy had always worked in retail before she got married.
Later, in 1981, she started first one business (New Life Maternity) and then another. Both shops were successful and Dorothy loved running them, but when she lost her husband in 1993, she decided to make some changes. She wrapped up both stores and moved to Coquitlam a few years later.
These were big changes. Now, newly widowed and no longer running two busy retail shops, Dorothy found herself “at loose ends. So I started spending time at the Wilson Centre, met a couple of friends and got involved.”
Then, two years ago, she joined the new Glen Pine Pavilion. She plays dominos, takes a painting class, calls bingo, and participates in the Joint Planning committee and the Board that runs the centre.
Glen Pine is “like a home away from home,” says Dorothy, “and it is just that to a lot of people. I’ve made a lot of new friends, and there is just a beautiful spirit, here.”
“It fills the gap,” she tells me, about volunteering. “That’s what I wish other people knew: that you can’t sit back. You have to give of yourself.”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for the nice interview, however it is not quite accurate.
I had two sons and one daughter,not three sons. My daughter attended Brownies. I was a volunteer in that group as well. Thank you!
Hi Dorothy, We think you have been a huge help to a lot of people, young and old, over the years .Stay healthy , I enjoy most of your emails. Well done Dorothy Bert and Lila