#inge ginsberg #julie kertesz #intergenerational #eurovision2014

Generations of Toastmasters: oldies rock!

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Three weeks ago, I was attending Division C conference in Dresden on behalf of our district (D59). At the end of my bilingual speech in German and English, the chief judge, a distinguished 60 yr old lady, came to me:
– “You know, you were fantastic!” (author’s note: for a change)
– “Thank you!”
– “When did you join Toastmasters?”
– “Six years ago”
– “And you are already in a district position! They pick you up young nowadays! I joined many, many years ago… it’s my mother who introduced me to Toastmasters!”
– “Really?” And I have to admit that I expected this conversation to turn very “Toastmasters” but then:
– “She is 92 yr old and competes for the Eurovision song contest selection in Switzerland! It would be so nice if Toastmasters could support her by voting for her!” I was looking in Marion’s eyes full of sparkles when evoking her mother who I later discovered (see link below) was a Hollywood star song writer among others for the crooner Dean Martin and Doris Day. I could share her emotion for Inge’s song, Inge whose appetite for competing showed an uncommon determination and inner force! I would like to keep my promise to this Toastmasters member and tell you about her fantastic mother and if you feel like voting for her song, here is the link http://www.eurovisionplattform.sf.tv/videos/inge_ginsberg_s_song 
Few days ago, I came across another “force de la nature” as we say in French (a person of incredible moral strength). As I could not attend our district autumn conference for professional reasons, I received lots of messages and pictures to compensate for my non-attendance – and some technical problems that prevented our OC and attendants to properly connect to the internet. Among them, a 79 yr old lady sent me a quite mysterious introduction:
“Hello! I have pictures of the Budapest conference. How would you like to get them by e-mail or do you prefer I upload them to flickr?” which sounded very much like a TM wikileaks attempt to my ears. It was signed Julie Kertesz, PhD, DTM – as if these two titles were equivalent – with numerous links under her name.  I thought Flickr would make the whole process easier to manage, I replied “Please send them by linking to Flickr” (logical to remain in the world of the essential)!
When I got her pictures, I went through them. They were very poetical, some of them poignant such as this installation by the Danube river: dozens of meters of old shoes aligned by the shore, symbolizing people who were forced into its cold winter waters in 1944. I could sense she was an artist of some kind, and I came across her image on our district’s FB group, but I did not know anything about her life. And then in the middle of this wealth of pictures (she has posted more than 50 000 for the last 9 yrs when she started to photograph),  there was a picture of herself on the plain page of a local newspaper http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyoflife/10901615273/ with a big 77. I thought maybe she is 77 yr old – but what journalist would stripe a plain page with the age of a woman over 40 even opening her arms widely with such vitality and appetite for life???
I e-mailed her back “What is this article about you – I do not read Hungarian?” One day later, I got the full text in Hungarian with a note “Do you prefer this text translated into French or English?” (always this brevity!). Although my mother tongue is French, for obvious reasons I said “English please, much easier to share with the others”… and there I got my portrait of an old lady as an artist: Julie, now 80, became a comedian at age 77 and in 2012 she won the silver newcomer comedy title in the UK. Equally successful is her story with photography: at times, several thousands of people visit her pages daily! Tell me who else gets similar results?
Julie’s message about Toastmasters is very clear: “As to what Toastmasters, gave me, ‘most important’ the interviewer asked, I did answer: the most important was giving me confidence. (And a tribe everywhere I go.)”
I know that in every corner of Toastmasters, there are such gems, people with purpose, positive, daring… they might be of another generation but both Inge and Julie are amazing women communicating the joy of life and the unbeatable spirit of challenge! Thank you ladies, you rock!
Author: Ruxandra Balboa-Pöysti Reviewer: Cindy Piccolo