Words of Wisdom

Nostalgia | October 8, 2026

By Lachy Halliday

Kay was born in Melbourne in 1939; she grew up on acreage in Ferntree Gully before moving to Coburg where her parents ran the general store. Kay got married and raised a family. As part of their weekend routine, they would play board games after dinner.

Now living on the Mornington Peninsula, Kay still tries to play games regularly with her friends.

These are her words of wisdom:

If life has taught you one lesson, what would it be?

Keeping your mind active is just as important as keeping your body active.                     

What do you do to keep your mind active?

One of the ways that I keep my mind active is by playing different word games and doing puzzles. One of my favourites is Words with Friends, it’s like Scrabble but on the iPad. I play it with my friend Jan every day, we usually have about three games on the go at once. Jan used to be an English teacher so she’s pretty good with words, she would beat me all the time. I’m a lot better at it now though, so our games are more evenly matched. As well as the Words with Friends, I play cards with my husband every day. We usually play cribbage; it’s a good game for the mind because you have to do lots of quick maths and thinking about strategy. My husband will say that I cheat because I always beat him, but I think it’s just because I’m better at thinking about the strategy over him.

I think with the games, there’s keeping the mind active by thinking hard about the next move, but there’s also keeping the mind active by socialising. Socialising stimulates your brain just as much as playing the game, and reminiscing with friends while playing helps to keep memories alive.

What do you want the reader to take away from your words of wisdom?

Find a game you like that you can play with your friends and start playing.