Age Is Just a Number

Emily Saunders, an eighty-five-year-old widow of means, lives in an affluent suburb of Brisbane and has everything she needs, but she is lonely. Her family does not have the time to check on her because of their busy lives. She phones her friend Audrey Thomas, also a widow, and asks her to accompany her on a cruise, and she is delighted. They had been through high school together and are still the best of friends. During the cruise, there is a talent quest; and as Audrey, also eighty-five, always wanted to be a singer, she entered and won the first and second contests, then was requested by the audience to do concerts, which were well-attended on the ship. On the cruise, they stopped at a small island that was very little, and the two ladies went to visit the school, which had very little tools, books, and things needed to run any school. Audrey and Emily decided to start a charity for the school. It was doing really well, and some big company names generously gave their products just for a mention in their advertisement. The women did well and soon outfitted the school from the donations received. After their second cruise, requested by the company for Audrey to do more concerts on board, they delivered all the goods, and the children did a concert on the ship for thanks and built up a good rapport with the passengers who all wanted to help this poor island school and joined the charity. They arrived back in Brisbane to the television news showing that a huge cyclone had washed away the homes of the children of the Vitu School and all the terrible devastation. Many families living in the school and hospital on the hill are the only buildings standing fully intact. The cruise ships couldnt go in for the debris everywhere, so there was no income from the islanders wares. It was full steam ahead with the charity. Audreys two sons came and voluntarily managed the funds coming in through the charity. Audrey does a huge concert in Brisbane with other supporting acts in a stadium for seventy-five thousand people and kept the charity money building. There were fifty-six tradesmen of all persuasions who went voluntarily and did an amazing job, all being filmed to show the people where their hard-earned donations had been used for. From this, Audrey, who has dreamed of having her own concert all her life, made DVDs and CDs that sold out and won awards. They both got humanitarian awards and, after a full-on three years, decided to slow down and take it easy. This is a wonderful story of love, friendship, family, and human kindness and proves that age is just a number.