Speaker 1: Thanks, old man.
Speaker 2: The as Garden residents are joining us this week and next.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited for you to hear their stories. All
Speaker 2: of them are eighty years old and plus, and we
Speaker 2: have stories from their lives that I'm really honored that
Speaker 2: they're letting me share with you. This week we have Sandra, Dave,
Speaker 2: and Carol all joining the show. So sit back and
Speaker 2: enjoy some very beautiful story times. Miss Sandra joins me
Speaker 2: right now. I am so excited to chat with you.
Speaker 2: We have a published author in our midst. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, excited to talk all about some fun stuff of
Speaker 2: your life in your book. Yes, so, miss Ander, we
Speaker 2: start with this. How old are you?
Speaker 1: I am eighty? Well, I'll be eighty four in just
Speaker 1: a couple of days.
Speaker 2: Oh, happy early birthday. Yeah, very exciting. But you either
Speaker 2: just mentioned or a published author. Is this your one book?
Speaker 2: Are you writing another book? What's happening.
Speaker 1: I'm writing another book right now and I have space
Speaker 1: and time to do it here at Abe's Garden, and
Speaker 1: it is wonderful and I have a lot of support
Speaker 1: in doing it. But this is the book I have published.
Speaker 2: Okay, and it's called Sweet Adversity Sweat Adversity. Read the
Speaker 2: subtitle A Southern writer finds stories and good in everything.
Speaker 2: Tell me about this, Tell me why you wrote this book.
Speaker 1: Well, I've worked for thirty four years, and I was
Speaker 1: so busy with taking raising children, and then I had
Speaker 1: both the care both my parents for about five years.
Speaker 1: And I've always written, but I've never been able to
Speaker 1: get my book done. So when I came to Abes Garden,
Speaker 1: I started on my book. I've been here two years
Speaker 1: and it was published on my eighty third birthday last year. Wow,
Speaker 1: May the thirty first.
Speaker 2: Did you always want to be a writer?
Speaker 1: I have always written. I have a journalism degree, and
Speaker 1: I've always written, and I've taught writing. I've taught creative
Speaker 1: writing at a community college, and this is just my thing.
Speaker 1: I don't play cards, I don't smoke or drink or
Speaker 1: do anything we could. I just write.
Speaker 2: Do you also like to read too?
Speaker 1: I love to read. I think you have to read
Speaker 1: to be a writer. If you don't read, it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to write.
Speaker 2: What made you get into journalism and creative writing in
Speaker 2: the first place.
Speaker 1: Well, I took journalism in high school even and I
Speaker 1: worked on the school paper. But the big honor of
Speaker 1: my life when I was eighteen was I was selected
Speaker 1: to write the teen Talk topics column for the local paper.
Speaker 1: I'm from Oakridge, Tennessee, and I went to Oakridge High School.
Speaker 2: What were you writing about? Teen talk? Oh?
Speaker 1: My goodness. I did two columns a week for the
Speaker 1: local newspaper about teen activities. So anything that young people
Speaker 1: were doing in town, I would write about it. And
Speaker 1: one of the best things about this I got invited
Speaker 1: to every party. I got invited to every dance. I
Speaker 1: got invited to things where I wondered why did they
Speaker 1: invite me? And then I remembered they want their name in.
Speaker 2: The paper, So you're writing all the stuff.
Speaker 1: And I did, and I covered not just the popular people.
Speaker 1: I covered everybody. So people still remember that. I wrote
Speaker 1: teen Talk column, the teen Talk Topics column, and I
Speaker 1: got two dollars a column, so I made four dollars
Speaker 1: a week writing that book write in the column.
Speaker 2: Was that really exciting? When you first got that job,
Speaker 2: You're like, this is what I've wanted to do.
Speaker 1: It was. I was thrilled.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you go on to be I went.
Speaker 1: To journal them school at the University of Georgia, and
Speaker 1: I love that and worked on the Red and Black,
Speaker 1: and I've done some work at the University of Tennessee,
Speaker 1: worked on the Beacon.
Speaker 2: Did you always plan that education was going to be
Speaker 2: in that path?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, oh yes, so in the.
Speaker 2: Course of this also being an author, did you ever
Speaker 2: get married?
Speaker 1: I did get married. And pardon me for saying this,
Speaker 1: but I'm very happily divorced.
Speaker 2: Happily divorced. Tell me about that. Very happy.
Speaker 1: I met somebody at college. And when you're dating somebody
Speaker 1: and then after you marry him, they could be quite different.
Speaker 1: And back in my day, you know, and I will
Speaker 1: be eighty four on Saturday. Back in my day, if
Speaker 1: I had lived with him, my parents would have killed me.
Speaker 1: My grandparents would have died. My grandmother and my mother
Speaker 1: would have spent hours on the phone crying. We just
Speaker 1: didn't live with your boyfriend back then. My three pardon
Speaker 1: me for talking about this.
Speaker 2: But you can talk about whatever you want.
Speaker 1: My three grandchildren have lived with their significant others that
Speaker 1: boyfriends or girlfriends. And the good news is that my
Speaker 1: grandson lived with his girlfriend and she's a wonderful woman
Speaker 1: and they're now married. And my middle granddaughter doesn't exactly
Speaker 1: live with him, but they spend a lot of time together.
Speaker 2: If you get my drift.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then my oldest granddaughter lived with her boyfriend
Speaker 1: and decided this is not gonna work. If I had
Speaker 1: lived with the person I married, I would have known
Speaker 1: not to marry in first week.
Speaker 2: I knew.
Speaker 1: But that's what are under the bridge.
Speaker 2: So how long did you guys end up being married for?
Speaker 1: I hate to tell you this, it's very embarrassing. Thirty
Speaker 1: nine years.
Speaker 2: And you knew in the first week of living with
Speaker 2: him that you should not be married.
Speaker 1: I did, But you know, back in those days everything's
Speaker 1: different now. Back in those days, what happened is you
Speaker 1: try to make the best of it. You know, nice
Speaker 1: girls don't get divorced. Divorce was very.
Speaker 2: Rare, okay, But what did he do that this is
Speaker 2: coming to your mind in that first week. Well, if
Speaker 2: you want to share.
Speaker 1: Well, he just was acted sort of crazy that he
Speaker 1: was bipolar, oh goodness, undiagnosed by polar and he wouldn't
Speaker 1: take his medication and it was just very difficult. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, I had two children, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was a woman of my time, so I thought, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to make the best of it. If he
Speaker 1: can't manage, I will. So he did make me stronger.
Speaker 1: He did make me very successful at work because he
Speaker 1: couldn't keep a job.
Speaker 2: I did so. And you were raising two kids.
Speaker 1: I raised two kids and they're really, really nice people.
Speaker 2: What was that like for you? You're going through this and
Speaker 2: you're realizing this is not my person, but I'm I'm
Speaker 2: making things work. I'm holding a job, I have two kids.
Speaker 2: Most women of my era did that, and why do
Speaker 2: you feel like that was? That was just the.
Speaker 1: Norm back then? Divorce was something that nice women didn't do,
Speaker 1: or if they did, it was very rare.
Speaker 2: And then the moment finally happens where you do get divorced. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well what happened? Why did you finally decide this is it?
Speaker 2: I'm done.
Speaker 1: You got a girlfriend while you were married.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was so thrilled. I thought, hot dog.
Speaker 2: This is out, this is my card, this is it.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have divorced him for anything but adultery, but
Speaker 1: that that took care of it.
Speaker 2: Wow. And so you signed the papers and then you're like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a new life. Did you feel like you
Speaker 2: had just a entire life, still litle.
Speaker 1: Never been happier in my adult life. It's really been
Speaker 1: really nice.
Speaker 2: Did you ever have the desire to get married again?
Speaker 1: You make it the joke.
Speaker 2: If that's I'm gonna take that asn't know. I love
Speaker 2: this for you. You're focused on your books and you're writing.
Speaker 1: You focus on my writing. And I've just had a
Speaker 1: wonderful time. I've traveled a lot, and I have many
Speaker 1: many friends, and I've just had such a good life.
Speaker 1: And I've been able to manage my own money and
Speaker 1: I made some and I've been able to pick up
Speaker 1: my own clothes and pick up my own furniture, and
Speaker 1: I didn't have to ask anybody. And I just love that.
Speaker 2: If you could go back and do it again, would
Speaker 2: you not get married?
Speaker 1: I would probably get married, but I think i'd wait
Speaker 1: a while and maybe kind of test the waters a
Speaker 1: little bit before getting married. That's exactly right.
Speaker 2: But it did bring you your kids, So is that
Speaker 2: where the how the strength comes from?
Speaker 1: I have wonderful kids, I really do. My son has
Speaker 1: a marketing and public relations business Atlanta, and he also
Speaker 1: does stand up comedy and he's just started out intending
Speaker 1: just to do stand up comedy when one gig a
Speaker 1: month and now he's getting something like almost all the time,
Speaker 1: and he goes to the different comedy clubs in and
Speaker 1: around Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Do you think he's funny, he's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Well, for one thing, he had a crazy father and
Speaker 1: he had a mother I won't describe myself. And he
Speaker 1: had my parents who were hilarious, and he had grandparents
Speaker 1: on the other side who were hilarious. So he tells
Speaker 1: wonderful stories. I mean, he's got plenty of material, and so.
Speaker 2: Do I, which is why you wrote a book. Yes,
Speaker 2: So when you're talking in this book, are you talking
Speaker 2: about this kind of new lease on life and things
Speaker 2: that changed over the course of time for you?
Speaker 1: Well, this book has a variety of stories in it.
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of Vietnam stories in it.
Speaker 2: Okay, that era, Vietnam War era? Yeah, yeah, what was
Speaker 2: that like?
Speaker 1: It was scary, you know, it really was, because there
Speaker 1: are people here in this country opposed to it, and
Speaker 1: then there are people, people's sons dying over there. And
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, I'm so glad my son is young,
Speaker 1: or he would have been drafted. I mean, they were
Speaker 1: drafting everybody. So I wrote a story about a young couple.
Speaker 1: My story. There's a story called Blue Bronco in here.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I like about this story
Speaker 1: is a person who is a writer read the story.
Speaker 1: He was fancy. He's read my whole book and he
Speaker 1: was very complimentary about it. And he's a writer at
Speaker 1: Swanee and he's read that book. He read the story
Speaker 1: the Blue Bronco and he said, I'd like to know
Speaker 1: more about those characters.
Speaker 3: Well, what they.
Speaker 1: Are is young people in high school in Sneadville, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: and they're seniors in high school. The girl really really
Speaker 1: wants to get married just as soon as they graduate. Well,
Speaker 1: the war was raging, and the young man knew that
Speaker 1: if he didn't join the army or some branch of
Speaker 1: the service, he was going to get drafted. And she said, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you won't get drafted. And he said, well, I'm afraid
Speaker 1: I will. I think I better join up because I
Speaker 1: think i'd have a better chance of not getting sent
Speaker 1: to Vietnam. And so this story goes back and forth
Speaker 1: with her putting the pressure on him and him saying.
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I love you but I don't know. And then at
Speaker 1: the end, when I graduate from high school, I think
Speaker 1: he deliberately has a breakup with her, and then he says,
Speaker 1: pardon me for giving away the end of the story.
Speaker 1: The day after he graduates from high school, he cleans
Speaker 1: the mud off his blue Bronco and drivets to Knoxville
Speaker 1: and joins the army, and he says the last word
Speaker 1: of the story is war is hell, but getting married
Speaker 1: is worse.
Speaker 2: So I feel like there was some inspiration there, something there, yeah,
Speaker 2: something a little bit. I love that you wrote about
Speaker 2: this and you share how much of your story when
Speaker 2: you do look at your life and we talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about regrets. What's like your favorite moment from
Speaker 2: your story, because we did talk about your marriage, but
Speaker 2: I know there was a lot of highlights for you.
Speaker 1: Well, my brother and I are eighteen months apart, and
Speaker 1: there's quite a few stories in here about things that
Speaker 1: my brother and I did when we were young, because
Speaker 1: we were like twins. And so the first story, Sweet Adversity,
Speaker 1: is a story about me and my brother, and it's
Speaker 1: thinly disguised as fiction, but it's really a true story
Speaker 1: with some fictional touches.
Speaker 2: Is it related to a big adventure you guys had.
Speaker 1: Oh it is, yes, okay. My mother was a great
Speaker 1: giver of Tony Home permanence, and that's something you probably
Speaker 1: have never heard of.
Speaker 2: I haven't.
Speaker 1: They were very much the fad in the early fifties.
Speaker 1: Everybody wanted a Tony Home permanent. My mother was the
Speaker 1: queen of giving Tony Home permanence. They had little plastic
Speaker 1: rollers and and and the solution smelled horrible. It was
Speaker 1: just terrible.
Speaker 2: What is a Tony Home.
Speaker 1: It's a permanent?
Speaker 2: Well you a.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it's like beauty shops used to give permanence.
Speaker 2: Oh perms.
Speaker 1: Yeahm yes, it's a perm Okay, pardon me for not
Speaker 1: using it.
Speaker 2: No, it's okay, now, it's okay, now I know.
Speaker 1: But you'd buy the Tony Home Permanent at the at
Speaker 1: the drug store, and everybody in the neighborhood wanted one. Well,
Speaker 1: my mother gave all the Tony Home permanence, and she
Speaker 1: had to get me and my brother out of the
Speaker 1: house when this was going on because she had to
Speaker 1: follow a schedule that went to neutralize it and all
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. So she was given a perm
Speaker 1: to my cousin my older cousin. So she told us
Speaker 1: to go outside, and she told us not to go
Speaker 1: across the street and play with the children across the
Speaker 1: street because they were not our kind of people.
Speaker 2: Did you go play with the kids across the street?
Speaker 1: Of course we did. I mean that's like saying, I mean,
Speaker 1: tell me not to do something, that's what I'm going
Speaker 1: to do. Particularly when I was young.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a lot of your personality throughout your life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we went across the street and we played
Speaker 1: with those kids, and a couple of things happened, and
Speaker 1: their mother got mad, and she came over and she
Speaker 1: and my mother got into a little a little spat
Speaker 1: about their mother accused us of misbehavior. My mother accused
Speaker 1: them of misbehavior. And so you were a wild child, well,
Speaker 1: not well wild in terms of the era what young
Speaker 1: people do now, I wouldn't even have thought of.
Speaker 2: Oh that's fair. Yeah, things were a little bit different.
Speaker 2: You're a wild child for your time.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 1: And my brother was was very compliant, very quiet, and
Speaker 1: I could get him to do whatever I wanted him
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: Are you a troublemaker? Now?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 2: You looked at some people in the room, which made
Speaker 2: me think that you definitely are well. No, I want
Speaker 2: to know. This is something that I asked towards the
Speaker 2: end of this. When you look at your life and
Speaker 2: all the things that have happened in it, what's a
Speaker 2: piece of advice or motivation or inspiration that you'd want
Speaker 2: other people to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Well, one thing, the first bit of advice I would
Speaker 1: give is like, this book means a lot to me,
Speaker 1: and I'm writing another one. And I think older people,
Speaker 1: just because you get old doesn't mean you can't do
Speaker 1: something you've always wanted to do. If you want to
Speaker 1: travel somewhere, get a ticket, if you want to knit
Speaker 1: a bedspread or whatever, do it. Whatever you want to do,
Speaker 1: it's possible to do it. You might have to temper
Speaker 1: it a little bit based on your age and infirmity,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to sit and moan and say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm getting old. You can you can do there's something
Speaker 1: you can do.
Speaker 2: That's a really good reminder.
Speaker 1: And those who live at Apes Garden can do any
Speaker 1: number of things. I mean, there's a chorus, there's trips,
Speaker 1: there's outings, there's card games, there's bingo, there's everything. There's
Speaker 1: there's no excuse for not doing anything.
Speaker 2: What's something that you wish that you knew about getting older?
Speaker 1: Well, I've been very surprised at some of the physical
Speaker 1: things that happen, and I blessedly still have my mind
Speaker 1: and that may go tomorrow, and I realize that. But
Speaker 1: your hair gets thinner, your skin gets thinner, you put
Speaker 1: on weight in places that you don't want weight. They're
Speaker 1: just things that happened. I mean, I have age spots
Speaker 1: on my hand, just like my grandmother did. And you
Speaker 1: wear here in age wear glasses. You just can't win.
Speaker 1: But it's all worth it to grow older and to
Speaker 1: be happy.
Speaker 2: That's a really good part of that.
Speaker 1: And let me give my commercial bat Ape's Garden too.
Speaker 2: Okay, bring it to me, Sandra.
Speaker 1: I am very very happy here. And one reason I'm
Speaker 1: happy here is because it was my decision to come.
Speaker 1: I have neuropathy in both of my legs, my lower
Speaker 1: legs and feet, and I don't walk very well, and
Speaker 1: so I was a fall risk. And a couple of
Speaker 1: times I lived in a condo down the street here
Speaker 1: and a couple of times I fell and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't need to be here. By myself
Speaker 1: in this two bedroom, two bathroom condo. I need to
Speaker 1: go somewhere where I'm safe. And I visited different places
Speaker 1: around town, and I walked in the door here and
Speaker 1: it felt happy. This is a place. Nobody said anything
Speaker 1: right away, but it just felt good, and it is good.
Speaker 1: It's very happy.
Speaker 2: Did you have a misconception of senior living facilities before?
Speaker 1: Well, other people do. I have so many friends who say, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to stay in my own home, and my
Speaker 1: thought and what I usually say, well, isn't it rather lonely?
Speaker 1: You're in your own home by yourself, isn't it lonely?
Speaker 1: Or you're in your house with a husband and you're
Speaker 1: kind of tired of each other, you know, or me,
Speaker 1: it's just really nice to live in community.
Speaker 2: I have to ask you this because you've been so
Speaker 2: honest and so kind. Uh oh, If people are thinking
Speaker 2: of getting married, would you tell them to still get
Speaker 2: married despite things that you went through, or you're like,
Speaker 2: maybe second guess that.
Speaker 1: I would advise people to check out the product as
Speaker 1: best they can, get to know the person as best
Speaker 1: they can, get to know their family, get to know
Speaker 1: some history, take your time.
Speaker 2: That's a really good reminder, I think for a lot
Speaker 2: of people. So thank you so much, Sander for sharing
Speaker 2: so much and being so open with your whole story,
Speaker 2: and just thank you for being here.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: I shudder to think what my daughter and son will
Speaker 1: say when they see this.
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna love it. You think so I do.
Speaker 2: You're awesome, You have so much good spirit, and you'll
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 3: This has been fun.
Speaker 2: Davis joining me. Dave, how are you?
Speaker 4: How you feeling just fine? For a walk in the
Speaker 4: courtyard earlier today and it was very pleasant out there.
Speaker 2: I love your outfit too. Can you tell me a
Speaker 2: little bit about this hat, this shirt, what we got
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 4: It's just one of these things that I put on
Speaker 4: for Veterans Day holiday and the Memorial Day and things
Speaker 4: like that, to remind me of my twenty four year
Speaker 4: career in the Navy.
Speaker 2: Twenty four years in the Navy, is that always what
Speaker 2: you wanted to do?
Speaker 4: It was one of the things that I had an
Speaker 4: early introduction. My dad was in the Navy as an
Speaker 4: enlisted sailor right at the end of World War One.
Speaker 4: I was fortunate to have a Navy HOROTC. Sky at
Speaker 4: the University of Michigan, which got me through college with
Speaker 4: minimal expense on my part and my family's part. And
Speaker 4: I went into the Navy for six years of active
Speaker 4: duty and stayed, loved it.
Speaker 2: And daved tell everybody how old you are? Eighty Look
Speaker 2: at you, mister eighty eight? You were cracking a joke.
Speaker 2: What's your nickname?
Speaker 4: A planic man?
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 4: Because I've got scars on my knees for two knee replacements,
Speaker 4: scars on my hips for two hip replacements, and a
Speaker 4: bovying a bovine not a poor scene, Heartfelves.
Speaker 2: Is this from all your time in the Navy? Are
Speaker 2: you just you're going so hard serving your country.
Speaker 4: I can't chuck it up to that. No, it's just life.
Speaker 2: Life, okay. And why'd you decide to stay in the Navy?
Speaker 2: You served for six years and then he decided to stay.
Speaker 4: Why the Navy continued to send me the neat places
Speaker 4: in the world, jobs of greater responsibility? And I felt
Speaker 4: like I was serving my country and you.
Speaker 2: Served in the Vietnam War. Is that why you have
Speaker 2: that hat?
Speaker 4: That's why I have that head?
Speaker 2: What was the Vietnam War?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: I wasn't born until nineteen ninety three. So I have
Speaker 2: zero experience knowledge of anything besides what they taught us
Speaker 2: in history class. So what was that like living through
Speaker 2: that and serving.
Speaker 4: I was one of the fortunate ones. I didn't live
Speaker 4: in Vietnam on a long term basis. I was assigned
Speaker 4: to a Navy patrol squadron based in Hawaii. We were
Speaker 4: temporarily deployed to Okinawa in the Pacific for six months,
Speaker 4: and we rotated cruse of flight crews reconnaissance flight cruise
Speaker 4: into Cameron Bay in Vietnam flying patrols in the Tonkin Gulf.
Speaker 4: So we would go in there for a couple weeks
Speaker 4: at a time and that we'd be replaced by another crew.
Speaker 4: And our function was to report to South Vietnam authorities
Speaker 4: the attempted intrusion by North via Nam by boat into
Speaker 4: the South so that they could intercept and stop them
Speaker 4: from landing in South Vietnam. And that was our mission,
Speaker 4: plus that we were protecting any of our aircraft carriers
Speaker 4: that were working in the Tonkin Gulf at that time.
Speaker 2: Did you witness things there that were just stuff that
Speaker 2: you wish you never had seen.
Speaker 4: I did not personally know. We were our operation did
Speaker 4: not involve going out in direct contact with the enemy.
Speaker 4: The closest we came was we were raised out of
Speaker 4: the barracks one night. The North Vietnamese were trying to
Speaker 4: come through the fence, and they put us into a
Speaker 4: underground bunker, sandbag bunker until the area could be cleared.
Speaker 4: So I was, like I say, I was very fortunate
Speaker 4: that we were not in the direct line of fire
Speaker 4: like many of our troops were on the ground.
Speaker 2: Did you have a lot of friends that also served
Speaker 2: at the time, quite a few.
Speaker 4: Yes. I lost to several in the fighting in Vietnam,
Speaker 4: and that was tragic. I cannot I don't know whether
Speaker 4: you've ever had a chance to visit the Vietnam Wall
Speaker 4: exhibit in Washington, d c. The Black Wall, where they
Speaker 4: have all fifty eight thousand names of people who lost
Speaker 4: their lives, Americans who lost their lives in that war.
Speaker 4: But you can't help see that but be very emotionally
Speaker 4: moved by how many good people were lost.
Speaker 2: And for you as a human outside of being in
Speaker 2: the Navy, what was it like living in a world
Speaker 2: at that time where that was all going on?
Speaker 4: I was part of your daily routine. Basically, it's sad
Speaker 4: to say, but it was a day by day job.
Speaker 4: You got up not knowing what to expect. You knew
Speaker 4: you were going to fly a patrol to do certain things,
Speaker 4: and you knew hopefully that the landing strip would.
Speaker 2: Be there when you got and you were married. Did
Speaker 2: you get married before you started serving?
Speaker 4: No, I got married after I'd been in the Navy
Speaker 4: for about five years.
Speaker 2: Okay, how did you guys meet?
Speaker 4: Oh? I don't know whether we have enough time in
Speaker 4: the interview for that.
Speaker 2: Oh, bring it, I'm ready for it.
Speaker 4: An early squadron mate of mine was stationed with the
Speaker 4: Air America Group CIA Group in Cambodia at the time,
Speaker 4: and he was bringing a gift jacket, red knit jacket
Speaker 4: back from Hong Kong for a buddy of his who
Speaker 4: was my wife, Judy's roommate living in Vallejo, California at
Speaker 4: the time. So I provided transportation to get the code
Speaker 4: up there, and we appeared on the doorstep unannounced with
Speaker 4: this coat draped over our arm, and we met. This
Speaker 4: was in November of nineteen sixty three. I proposed in
Speaker 4: February of sixty four. We were married in August of
Speaker 4: sixty four, and we've been married for sixty almost sixty
Speaker 4: one years.
Speaker 2: So when you arrived on the porch, where you like,
Speaker 2: I'm in love with this woman.
Speaker 4: No, but after we had a couple of dates. We
Speaker 4: had our first date dinner in San Francisco. Our second
Speaker 4: date was on the Veterans Day weekend in Lahole. We
Speaker 4: went to the Napa Valley and drank wine all afternoon.
Speaker 2: Did you get a little wild? This is where she
Speaker 2: saw your wild side?
Speaker 4: So this is it's been a quite a story.
Speaker 2: How did you ask her when you're on that doorstep?
Speaker 2: What sequence of events? There's a stranger standing on her doorstep?
Speaker 2: How did you ask her out on a date?
Speaker 3: What happened?
Speaker 4: She didn't even notice the fact that we were naval officers.
Speaker 4: She just hollered to her roommate. She said, Ellen, your
Speaker 4: redknit code is here.
Speaker 2: And that was it.
Speaker 4: So that was it and the rest is history. Anyway,
Speaker 4: we have a son and a daughter grown living here
Speaker 4: in Nashville, so we're very fortunate in that regard.
Speaker 2: And what's the secret to sixty years together? What did
Speaker 2: you guys do that made that so awesome? In work
Speaker 2: for that long?
Speaker 4: If I knew I would bottle it. Yeah, And make
Speaker 4: a fortune.
Speaker 2: You did something right me the right people.
Speaker 4: I guess we traveled a lot, We spent some time apart,
Speaker 4: which may have helped.
Speaker 2: What is that hard on you guys because you were
Speaker 2: still serving? Is that hard for you guys' relationship?
Speaker 4: And I was very fortunate because the longest we were
Speaker 4: ever separated for a straight period of time was probably
Speaker 4: four or five months. Nothing like some of these sailors
Speaker 4: they go out for a six month deployment, they get
Speaker 4: it extended for nine months, and they've lost a year
Speaker 4: of their lives with their families. I've been blessed.
Speaker 2: And when you first started dating her and you were
Speaker 2: going on all these first date what were the qualities
Speaker 2: that you saw on her and you were just like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is going to be my bride.
Speaker 4: She was a Midwestern girl, farm raised in Iowa, up
Speaker 4: in the big city of Detroit. She was down to earth,
Speaker 4: great sense of humor, beautiful blue eyes. One of those
Speaker 4: things it just happened.
Speaker 2: What did you guys spend a lot of time doing
Speaker 2: together in those sixty years that you had said, you
Speaker 2: guys traveled a lot. What were your guys as hoppies.
Speaker 2: What were the things you guys enjoyed together.
Speaker 4: We played golf together. We played tennis, not together, but
Speaker 4: both played tennis. We both enjoyed riding our bicycles, enjoyed
Speaker 4: going to movies. We enjoyed a lot of the same foods.
Speaker 4: She was a good cook. I'm a good eater.
Speaker 2: What was your favorite dish that she made for you?
Speaker 4: Oh, it was probably corn on the cob Iowa.
Speaker 2: Style, Sara and Iowa style that I'm from Kansas and
Speaker 2: we had great corn on the cob.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you did.
Speaker 2: What is the Iowa style that I'm unfamiliar with?
Speaker 4: It was cooked bile, beautiful lady from Iowa.
Speaker 2: I see, this is like the engagement chicken. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you've heard of this, but apparently there's this
Speaker 2: engagement chicken that if you would like your man to
Speaker 2: propose to you, the woman makes this engagement chicken and
Speaker 2: it's supposed to make the process happen quicker happened. So
Speaker 2: it was the Iowa style corn on the cob your ticket.
Speaker 4: I didn't think about it at the time, but maybe
Speaker 4: it was.
Speaker 2: That was the reason. How long were you guys together
Speaker 2: before you had proposed.
Speaker 4: Let's see, she was living in Valley Hill, with her
Speaker 4: friend from Iowa who was a teacher at that time.
Speaker 4: And I was living in Mountain View Station at Moffatt
Speaker 4: Field in California, near San Francisco. And like I say,
Speaker 4: we met in November, I proposed in February. We got
Speaker 4: married in May Island Naval Shipyard Chapel in August of
Speaker 4: nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 2: So all within one year your life changed. Is that
Speaker 2: crazy to think about?
Speaker 4: And very blessed in that way. Everything just fell in place,
Speaker 4: not just from that marriage but from my life in general.
Speaker 2: Were you guys communicating via letters when you were stationed
Speaker 2: apartment letters.
Speaker 4: And we sent periodic and magnetic tape recordings back and
Speaker 4: forth so I could talk to the kids on magnetic
Speaker 4: tape when I was a board ship and undeployments.
Speaker 2: Do you still have those today?
Speaker 4: I still have a lot of them. As a matter
Speaker 4: of fact, A lot of that is stuff that's in
Speaker 4: our apartment waiting to be reread and cleansed.
Speaker 2: Saving for the kids to see one day. Right when
Speaker 2: you look back on your life and you did the Navy,
Speaker 2: and you got married, and all of this sounds so beautiful.
Speaker 2: Was there any regrets that you had over the course
Speaker 2: of time when you look back.
Speaker 4: No regrets at all, No regrets at all. I think
Speaker 4: life is what you make it. Don't think you're guaranteed anything,
Speaker 4: not even life itself. Just go forward as it's there.
Speaker 2: Live very in the present moment. Is this a Navy term?
Speaker 4: That's four years of Spanish I took in high school.
Speaker 2: What does it mean?
Speaker 4: Whatever it will be will be.
Speaker 2: I like it. This is a good life motto that
Speaker 2: we lived. Your life by those very small years of Spanish.
Speaker 4: Boy scouts, be prepared, you have to be.
Speaker 2: Were you also a boy scout very briefly? Okay, you
Speaker 2: do seem like you got the boy scout mentality in there.
Speaker 4: I was a boy scout for sure, the tenderfoot rating.
Speaker 4: And then in Detroit I had to go out in
Speaker 4: the wintertime. We're on a camping trip overnight, and we
Speaker 4: had to go out in a snowfall and find dry
Speaker 4: enough wood that we could build a fire to cook
Speaker 4: a steak. And that steak was terrible. It was cold.
Speaker 4: I gave up scouting and went to softball instead.
Speaker 2: The fair change. I understand when you're looking at your
Speaker 2: life in those stories, First, what's one of your favorite moments?
Speaker 2: What is your favorite memory that you wish you could
Speaker 2: live over and over again.
Speaker 4: There are so many. I feel very blessed at having
Speaker 4: so many. Some things that still create great emotion for me,
Speaker 4: as being in the presence of the United States Marine
Speaker 4: Corps band when they play our national anthem.
Speaker 2: I bet that sounds really cool.
Speaker 4: Something that's here and it always will be.
Speaker 2: Does it remind you of the time you were serving?
Speaker 2: What's that emotion?
Speaker 4: A very blessed life. You can't look around the world
Speaker 4: today and see what's going on and not feel very blessed.
Speaker 4: Even in the midst of a fire drill. Things happen
Speaker 4: backlog on Interviewees.
Speaker 2: You are so funny certain days.
Speaker 4: Oh, but you look at what the people in Gaza
Speaker 4: and Ukraine are going through right now. They have nothing.
Speaker 4: Everything they've lived and worked for, in cases died for
Speaker 4: is laying out.
Speaker 2: There's rubble in the streets, watching things and just events
Speaker 2: as they've happened. With everything that you've experienced and all
Speaker 2: that you've done, what's your takeaway as you look at
Speaker 2: the world today.
Speaker 4: There we need to do better mankind, not just us.
Speaker 4: Mankind needs to do better about looking out for.
Speaker 2: Mankind people, looking out for people a.
Speaker 4: Little bit better, exactly exactly. This is one of the
Speaker 4: one of the things that I appreciate about being here
Speaker 4: at Abes. It's the fact that I'm ancient along with
Speaker 4: all the other the residents here here. Not ancient, but
Speaker 4: I'm so blessed in terms of physical and mental health
Speaker 4: that I have that I can be of assistance to
Speaker 4: many of those here who don't have all of it.
Speaker 4: If I can do that's a plus. Shooting got a
Speaker 4: very nice certificate signed by the Secretary of the Navy
Speaker 4: thanking her for her service as a Navy spouse.
Speaker 2: What did you feel like when she got that?
Speaker 4: I was very greatly rewarded. Because the spouse very often
Speaker 4: got left at that time, mostly male but now male
Speaker 4: or female, is ordered to go someplace else for duty.
Speaker 4: They get left with cleaning up the house, getting the
Speaker 4: kids packed, and making the move, and they don't get
Speaker 4: thanked for that very often. And I think that it's
Speaker 4: important that somebody the higher echelons there understand what they
Speaker 4: have to go through every time we made a move.
Speaker 2: You saying this, Dave, makes me want to ask you,
Speaker 2: there's so many guys out there, and a lot of
Speaker 2: people who are trying to day learning what it means
Speaker 2: to be a partner. What advice would you give guys
Speaker 2: that you feel like they might be missing to have
Speaker 2: a marriage and a success that you've had.
Speaker 4: The biggest thing I would say would be to recognize
Speaker 4: that when you make that proposal, recognize the fact that
Speaker 4: you are asking her to participate in a life of
Speaker 4: the two of you together. I have a nephew, for example,
Speaker 4: who was married many years ago. They was married for
Speaker 4: six months, and what it evolved was the fact that
Speaker 4: they got married for marriage sake, but neither one of
Speaker 4: them gave up their sa relationships. He did his things
Speaker 4: with his buds, She continued to do her things with
Speaker 4: her buds, and they didn't form any relationships involving the
Speaker 4: both of them. And I don't think you can do
Speaker 4: it that way. You gotta. It's an all or nothing thing.
Speaker 4: Not to say you can't maintain those relationships, but not
Speaker 4: that let them take priority for the relationships you build
Speaker 4: between the two of you.
Speaker 2: See, you have so much wisdom to share, lived a
Speaker 2: lot of life.
Speaker 4: Not the gray hair is surprise you.
Speaker 2: They're not surprising me at all. I would like you
Speaker 2: to share one more piece of advice if you will,
Speaker 2: Maybe it's two people out there who are your age,
Speaker 2: maybe younger, or just anything that you think is important
Speaker 2: to share that you've learned over the course of your life.
Speaker 4: Enjoy it for as long as you have it, use it,
Speaker 4: or lose it. Philosop be about exercise.
Speaker 2: Kind of like the knees.
Speaker 4: Yeah, go out and walk every day, go out and
Speaker 4: ride the bike and the gym down there. Do something
Speaker 4: to keep active as active as you can, and eventually
Speaker 4: it's going to catch up. The old body just doesn't
Speaker 4: hold up the way it used to.
Speaker 2: Something about you, though, tells me that you're still living
Speaker 2: just like you used to.
Speaker 4: I don't play golf anymore or tennis because I'm afraid
Speaker 4: that if I swing a club two yard, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: fall down on the t box and that's kind of embarrassing.
Speaker 2: So I don't feel like anything would be embarrassing for you.
Speaker 2: I think you'd make a really good joke out of it.
Speaker 2: Try were you a prankster in your family? Would you
Speaker 2: prank with the kids?
Speaker 4: And No, it was a very straight laced guy. As
Speaker 4: I recall, my memory is deteriorated now.
Speaker 2: You just make jokes all the time. Oh, Dave, thank
Speaker 2: you for being here with me sharing your story, and.
Speaker 4: Thank you for being so kind.
Speaker 2: You're always welcome. Carol joins me right now. Hi, Carol,
Speaker 2: thank you for being here.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you for asking me.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to hear your story. Can you share with
Speaker 2: everyone how old you are?
Speaker 3: I'm eighty five, eighty.
Speaker 2: Five, very young, eighty five. You look wonderful.
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 2: You feel wonderful.
Speaker 3: I do. I'm not every day, but most of the time.
Speaker 2: Hey, well take that. That's better than most. Right. And
Speaker 2: what did you spend a lot of your life doing, Carol?
Speaker 2: Occupation wise?
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, I was mostly a mother of five children
Speaker 3: and a wife to my husband. And we moved to
Speaker 3: Florida in nineteen seventy eight because my husband had heart problems,
Speaker 3: so we went so we had the warm weather and
Speaker 3: we ended up living there forty years.
Speaker 2: How long were you and your husband married for?
Speaker 3: If he was alive today, it would have been sixty
Speaker 3: six years. It was fifty six years when he died
Speaker 3: that we've been together.
Speaker 2: Were you high school sweethearts? Or how to tell me?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I met him in college.
Speaker 2: Was it fun love at first sight? You knew? No?
Speaker 3: Because I was coming. I was on the stairs and
Speaker 3: I was coming in the door to the classroom and
Speaker 3: he was coming the other way and knocked me down.
Speaker 2: He knocks you down, and you still said he did?
Speaker 2: You'll take him?
Speaker 3: Yes? Exactly?
Speaker 2: Was that the first moment and you guys started dating
Speaker 2: after that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: Because I didn't know him before then. He was a
Speaker 3: year ahead of me, And no, I didn't really know him.
Speaker 3: I might have seen him in the halls or something.
Speaker 2: What were you studying in college?
Speaker 3: Teach to be a teacher?
Speaker 2: So did you end up doing any teaching?
Speaker 3: Or I had children instead?
Speaker 2: Okay, and became a stay at home mom.
Speaker 3: I taught my children. I hope, yeah.
Speaker 2: Were they homeschool or they.
Speaker 3: Would know they are. But I hope that we set
Speaker 3: a good example for and made rules that you know,
Speaker 3: they abided by.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of kiddos. Was that always the plan?
Speaker 3: No, My mother had nine and I knew that I
Speaker 3: didn't want nine, and I didn't even really think about five.
Speaker 3: I really four was the idea because I had two
Speaker 3: boys and two girls, and I thought, well, that's the
Speaker 3: perfect family. But then when we moved to Florida, probably
Speaker 3: because maybe a little homesick or whatever. I got pregnant
Speaker 3: with the fifth one.
Speaker 2: Is there a big age gap between the four and
Speaker 2: that one?
Speaker 3: Uh? Well, yeah, there's I see Mary Beth who works here.
Speaker 3: She was eight years old when Jennifer was born. It
Speaker 3: was like an eight year but I had a sixteen
Speaker 3: year old daughter and she it was almost like it
Speaker 3: was her child.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'd go out and like to the pool or whatever,
Speaker 3: because she always was with her and looking at her,
Speaker 3: and they all thought I was a grandmother and she
Speaker 3: was the mother.
Speaker 2: You're like, no, that is my child.
Speaker 3: Yeah it is. I mean, if you want to take over.
Speaker 2: And now, do your kids all have grandkids for you?
Speaker 3: Yes? I have eleven grandchildren and I have two great
Speaker 3: grandchildren and one on the way.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what's that been like for you to get
Speaker 2: to see the different generations? Now?
Speaker 3: It's good. I really enjoyed the great grandchildren, especially they're
Speaker 3: small now they're five and three, but it's so much nicer.
Speaker 3: They're not yours, and you don't have to well you
Speaker 3: do worry, but you don't have that responsibility, so you
Speaker 3: sort of enjoy a more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd have a little bit more fun. They're not
Speaker 2: technically yours to worry about exactly. Do you like the
Speaker 2: title more now of grandma or mom? Which one feels
Speaker 2: more meaningful to you? Because I know they both are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess mom still means the most. You know.
Speaker 3: Some of my children call me mom and some call
Speaker 3: me mother mother. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is that when you're you're doing something bad and their mother?
Speaker 3: That's my daughter, Mary Beth, the one that works there,
Speaker 3: She calls me mother.
Speaker 2: It might just be a younger thing. I know sometimes
Speaker 2: we call people mother. That's a very young term to use. Yeah.
Speaker 2: What was that like for you? Being a stay at
Speaker 2: home mom? Is that something that you're so happy you did?
Speaker 2: Or did you have any ever?
Speaker 1: Graduated?
Speaker 3: I enjoyed it. I did go to work when my
Speaker 3: last one, Jennifers, when she was two. My neighbor next
Speaker 3: door was watching kids like a little in the house nursery.
Speaker 3: And I went to work part time for Macy's in
Speaker 3: their cash return office, and then I from there I
Speaker 3: went to banking, and then from there I went to
Speaker 3: a health center where I did data entry for people
Speaker 3: that made God false fell and felt like the residents
Speaker 3: when they fall. You had to write this whole, you know, paper,
Speaker 3: and I put it in the computer.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you had kind of a second
Speaker 2: life when you started working again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did. I did.
Speaker 2: Was that always the plan or did it just kind of.
Speaker 3: Fall in my whole life? Nothing was planned. My husband
Speaker 3: had heart trouble. He was at twenty eighty at his
Speaker 3: first heart attack, and we didn't realize what was happening
Speaker 3: until they found you know, they told us he had
Speaker 3: a heart attack. He had to stay in bed. Back then,
Speaker 3: they didn't have as much knowledge as they have now.
Speaker 3: They have to stay in bed for six weeks. And
Speaker 3: so then four years later he had a bypass surgery
Speaker 3: where they took care of the bad artery. And then
Speaker 3: twenty years later he had open heart surgery. Wow, he
Speaker 3: got someone's heart and then from there he lived twenty years.
Speaker 2: Those are not things you're anticipating national find.
Speaker 3: Someone, But we got through it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, were those hard, especially that first one he was so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was hard because for one thing, we weren't
Speaker 3: living at home. We were living in Kentucky at the
Speaker 3: time because he had been in the Service, and when
Speaker 3: he got out of the Service, we had made so
Speaker 3: many good friends we just decided to stay and so
Speaker 3: there wasn't anybody really around to help.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I had my oldest daughter and my oldest son were
Speaker 3: babies then, so yeah, it wasn't easy then, but we
Speaker 3: made it.
Speaker 2: And you were also a military spouse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what was that? He was just a lab check
Speaker 3: at Port Hawks and he never was sent anywhere there
Speaker 3: was dangerous or anything. He just worked on animals and
Speaker 3: all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm happy he didn't have to experience that too, And.
Speaker 3: Then he goes, yeah, no, I'm happy to Yeah.
Speaker 2: And when you lost him, what was that experience like
Speaker 2: for you? Because after being together for so many years,
Speaker 2: that's all you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: What was that like when he passed?
Speaker 3: And when he passed, well, my friend passed, my husband passed.
Speaker 3: I still have to regret that he's not around where
Speaker 3: I can confide any you know, tell him things that
Speaker 3: I'm excited about. When I was in Franklin, I did
Speaker 3: eucharistic minister and I took communion to people in the
Speaker 3: hospital and I took it to this one lady and
Speaker 3: she was somebody we had known when we were in college.
Speaker 3: And I just couldn't and in my mind, I couldn't
Speaker 3: wait to get home to tell Larry and he wasn't there.
Speaker 3: I mean, he wasn't there anymore, and that hurt. So
Speaker 3: I regret that he's gone for that, but I know
Speaker 3: he's in a better place.
Speaker 2: And his name was Larry, Yeah, Larry. What was your
Speaker 2: favorite memory that you had with Larry?
Speaker 3: With Larry, Well, we went fishing in a secluded pond
Speaker 3: on this farm friend of his, and I was pregnant
Speaker 3: with my first child, so I was out to hear
Speaker 3: and she I got chiggers all over my stomach. I
Speaker 3: mean it was ugly looking all over. And always blame
Speaker 3: him for that. He's the one that took me.
Speaker 2: That's his fault.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did he take the blame for.
Speaker 3: That, Yeah, he did. There's a lot of moments with
Speaker 3: him too, like when he came out of surgery, you know,
Speaker 3: getting the new heart and seeing him there and he
Speaker 3: was hooked up to so many machines, you know, so
Speaker 3: the heart would not reject him. And those were really
Speaker 3: happy moments. We had a lot of good moments.
Speaker 2: What was your favorite quality about Larry that really made
Speaker 2: it like this is going to be my husband?
Speaker 3: Okay? He was very gentle, very gentle, soft spoken, very gentle.
Speaker 3: I'm not that way. I mean, I can be gentle,
Speaker 3: but I'm not soft spoken, and it would be his
Speaker 3: his honesty and patience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and those are really important quality traits. When your
Speaker 2: kids were looking for partners, yes, were you like they
Speaker 2: have to be like Larry. Larry's a great example.
Speaker 3: I hoped, but I didn't put any preference for them.
Speaker 2: If you just look back on your life that you
Speaker 2: didn't do, or maybe you did do and you wish you.
Speaker 3: Didn't, I'm trying to think. I mean, it was a
Speaker 3: big void and my life although I still had the
Speaker 3: five kids that kept me busy. I mean they were grown,
Speaker 3: going to school when some were married. But it's just
Speaker 3: avoid when you spend that much time with somebody, and
Speaker 3: it's hard to get used to it. But it does
Speaker 3: with time.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like it did? Over time? Start to
Speaker 2: feel better.
Speaker 3: It'll be He's been deceased for ten years now, so yeah,
Speaker 3: it is much easier. But I still, you know, think
Speaker 3: of him and things will come in my head, just
Speaker 3: like this person I met that we both knew. I
Speaker 3: wanted to go home tell him about it because I
Speaker 3: knew he'd be excited that she was in town.
Speaker 2: So did it help you to ever? Still share those
Speaker 2: stories with him, like do you have a photo of him?
Speaker 3: And oh I have? You know, I have two photos
Speaker 3: in my apartment.
Speaker 2: I mean, and telling those stories does that help?
Speaker 3: You know? I did tell him the one about her
Speaker 3: seeing her in the hospital and how I wish he
Speaker 3: had been there.
Speaker 2: What's things that you do now activity wise or maybe
Speaker 2: other things that help you remember that life you guys
Speaker 2: had together bring you joy?
Speaker 3: Well, I really don't do a lot of things that
Speaker 3: I used to do when when he was alive. We
Speaker 3: played golf every Sunday with this souther couple and he
Speaker 3: taught me to play golf, even then when I wasn't
Speaker 3: reacting very well to his teaching, like comy lessons from
Speaker 3: somebody else. But he was a good golfer. So we'd
Speaker 3: play golf every Sunday. And you know, I don't do
Speaker 3: that anymore. I didn't even do that when I was
Speaker 3: before I you know, fell and all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: But yeah, there's a lot of things like getting together
Speaker 3: with the kids for dinner or going out. You know,
Speaker 3: you're miss him.
Speaker 2: What about you when you look back at your happiest
Speaker 2: moments of your life and you're thinking of half time,
Speaker 2: what was that one moment that kind of takes you back.
Speaker 3: I think the happiest moment would be when he was
Speaker 3: told that a heart was available for him. Because we
Speaker 3: had come back from Indiana on vacation and he had
Speaker 3: an appointment at Gainesville at the hospital there and for
Speaker 3: a checkup, and when they checked him, the muscle in
Speaker 3: his heart was just rodding away because of all the
Speaker 3: problems he had. His muscle wasn't good anymore, and they
Speaker 3: put him in the hospital right away. He didn't even
Speaker 3: go home with me. I went home by myself, and
Speaker 3: four weeks later they had a heart for him.
Speaker 2: You had so many different experiences of your life, and
Speaker 2: I feel like so much knowledge to share from a
Speaker 2: lot of these. If you could give anybody, whether they're
Speaker 2: your age or younger, or at any point in their life,
Speaker 2: a piece of advice or motivation or inspiration, what do
Speaker 2: you think you would share?
Speaker 3: Oh, God, there's so much you can.
Speaker 2: Share, as much as you want to.
Speaker 3: I do know that I never thought that I'd be
Speaker 3: spending my golden years by myself and not with my husband.
Speaker 3: You know, even though he had heart problems, I knew
Speaker 3: that he'd probably leaves this earth before I did, but
Speaker 3: I just never never thought of it that way, And
Speaker 3: so I think people they need to think more about
Speaker 3: when they get old and be prepared physically, mentally, and financially,
Speaker 3: because when you're alone like that, you have no one
Speaker 3: you can depend on, so you've got to start preparing
Speaker 3: ahead of time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good piece of advice. And I
Speaker 2: just thank you so much for sharing your story.
Speaker 3: Oh you're welcome.
Speaker 2: In parts of your life with us. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to do it. I love talking about him.
Speaker 2: I love hearing you talk about him. It was so lovely.
Speaker 2: Thank you for being here.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: If you love this week as much as I did,
Speaker 2: get ready for next week because we have even more
Speaker 2: residents from Abes Garden joining to share their stories. Larry,
Speaker 2: Brenda Ward, and Shirley all will be on next week
Speaker 2: with more stories from their lives and experiences. So get
Speaker 2: subscribed so you don't miss a single thing, and follow
Speaker 2: the Instagram page at take this personally so you can
Speaker 2: see photos and videos of all of the residents this
Speaker 2: week and next, and of course all the other posts
Speaker 2: and everything that's all up there. It's a huge support.
Speaker 2: When you guys go and follow those. Thank you and
Speaker 2: thank you for being here. As always, I love you.
Speaker 2: Have a very safe and happy Fourth of July weekend.
Speaker 2: We'll talk next week.