Meaningful Memories: Rekindling Past Learning Experiences to Live Life to the Fullest

Nostalgia, learning experiences, meaningful memories... This book is filled with these from a man who grew up in a strong Irish-Catholic community in the North End of Saint John in the 1950s and 1960s, went on to practise law and then become a law professor and consultant in Toronto, and most recently, joyfully embraced RVing and living in an active retirement community. But besides dusting these memories off for enjoyment, John G. Kelly has a larger purpose. By cleverly showing how his past experiences and even his F.A.I.L.s (first attempts in learning) have positively impacted his future, he demonstrates how we can all learn from our past and use this knowledge to live life to the fullest as a member of an active, caring community.

Filled with humorous anecdotes, recollections of a bygone era, reflections on community, and a unique outlook on how to get the most from life, Meaningful Memories has something for anyone who likes a good story. However, for anyone from Saint John, New Brunswick (or who grew up in any of the Atlantic provinces for that matter), fellow RVers, or 65+ young/olds (YOLDS) looking to enjoy active retirement to the fullest, you will not be able to put this book down!

John G. Kelly was born in the 1950s and grew up in the North End of Saint John, New Brunswick. He feels his experiences with growing up in a close-knit, Irish-Catholic parish that always took care of its own offers lessons for how we can create better communities in the future.

John received his law degree from Dalhousie University and his Masters in Judicial Administration from Brock University. He has worked as a legal services consultant, taught as a law professor at Seneca College for over 30 years, and was the founder of Canada Law From Abroad, a service that helped over a thousand Canadians to pursue a law degree in the UK and then come back to practise law in Canada. He is embarking on an "encore career" and has developed a pathway to success for the new generation of young adults and millennials that will ignite their passion and empower them to embark on creative careers in the "new economy" where they can to do well, do good and make a contribution to a sustainable environment in affordable age friendly communities.

John and his wife Susan embraced age friendly active community living for more than twenty-five years in the globally ranked "gold standard" Crombie Park in the multi-cultural St. Lawrence Neighborhood in downtown Toronto and for nine years in one of Canada's model "55+" communities in Village by the Arboretum in Guelph. They've been snowbirding for eleven years in age friendly active resort communities in Florida and Arizona with their iconic Airstream. John has "come home". He and Susan are residing in the historic resort town of Saint Andrews by the Sea on the Bay of Fundy. John intends to mentor towns on how to obtain WHO age friendly accreditation status and utilize it as the foundation for model active communities in the emergent shift from urban centres to vibrant small east coast communities.