He may be a stroke and cancer survivor approaching his 90th birthday, but that does not mean Martin Chaplin is ready to retire.
Only a few months after moving into Nightingale — a care home for older members of the Jewish community — the former chairman of West London Synagogue has started collecting anecdotes and poems from his fellow residents and publishing them in a regular newsletter.
The Nightingale Residents’ Newsletter is an extension of Mr Chaplin’s publishing activities. For the past 20 years, the former accountant has compiled a weekly news-sheet on Israel’s policies for his fellow congregants. It is still handed out every week at Shabbat services.
A regular at tea dances organised at the Waldorf Hilton by his daughters, Mr Chaplin taught himself desktop publishing at the age of 89.
He tells People: “I had the program on my computer, so I had only to activate it. Fortunately, Nightingale had a couple of qualified instructors attending twice a week, and I worked on a strictly need-to-know basis to learn enough to publish the first edition. My philosophy is: ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’. When I took stock of my general condition after my stroke, and found I still had most of my marbles intact, I was determined that the best way of avoiding any further deterioration was to use my mind and body actively to whatever limits they could cope with.
“If anyone asks you if you can do something, never say no. You never know what you are capable of until you try.”
www.nightingalehouse.org.uk