Tuesday 1 September 10.00am. Heartlands, Jellicoe Street, Martinborough. Everyone welcome. $5.00 or koha.
As usual, on the first Tuesday of the month, U3A will be meeting at Heartlands.
This month we welcome Trixie Duckett, who has worked for over 30 years in the funeral services sector. Trixie is qualified in both embalming and funeral directing and is passionate about supporting families through one of life’s toughest times. She’s known for her caring nature and love of connecting with those her work brings her into contact with.
As a proud Wairarapa local, Trixie lives in Featherston with her family.
Trixie is a member of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ), upholding the highest professional and ethical standards. She finds it a privilege to speak with community groups about bereavement, the various processes involved, the different burial sites available, and the importance of meaningful, personalised farewells.
This is an event we will all encounter, either involving others or ourselves. It could be of real help in being prepared for the farewell of a friend, a loved one, or oneself. Personally, I think it’s a bit easier to have made these preparations beforehand, before the fog of emotion makes matters even harder.
It could be of real help in being prepared for the farewell of a friend, a loved one, or oneself.
This talk was arranged at the request of one of the U3A group.
As usual, on the first Tuesday of July, U3A Martinborough hosted Rachel Barwell, a dyslexia educator based in Kāpiti, who travels the length of the country supporting adults and children with dyslexia, primarily using the Davis Method of learning.
Dyslexia is a neurobiological, language-based learning disability characterised by difficulties with accurate and fluent word reading, spelling, and decoding. It is entirely unrelated to a person’s intelligence — the brain simply processes speech sounds and letters differently. Dyslexia exists on a spectrum, and signs vary by age: young children may struggle with nursery rhymes, delayed speech, or connecting letters to sounds; school-age children often struggle to read aloud, make consistent spelling errors, or reverse letters like b and d; teens and adults may find reading slow and labour-intensive, avoid reading or writing tasks, struggle with foreign languages, or have trouble retrieving words in conversation.
Rachel told us that around 30% of the population think and learn differently from the remaining 70%. Some are “sound-based” thinkers, which is what our education system caters for. Others are image-based and three-dimensional thinkers. These people don’t have anything “wrong” with them – they are just different.
We were told that 75% of men in prison are dyslexic, and one in five people with dyslexia are also neurodiverse. Because dyslexia affects learning, it often damages self-esteem too, adding to emotional baggage.
This was a really enlightening talk, arranged following a request from one of our members. If you, or anyone you know, thinks they may have dyslexia, Rachel recommends three books: Fish Don’t Climb Trees by Sue Hall, and The Gift of Dyslexia and The Gift of Learning, both by Ron Davis. The key message: dyslexia doesn’t have to be tolerated and lived with – there is very good help at hand.
