Two newspaper articles mysteriously appeared on my desk. Where they have been hiding until now, I couldn’t begin to say. But I know why I kept them. They are both golden.
The first came from USA Today for March 30, 2004.
Robert Lipsyte, who is identified as a journalist and author of a young-adult novel, Warrior Angel, is writing about the way we only realize the value of the elderly in times of crisis.
Robert Lipsyte writes, Whenever disaster strikes–from illness in the family to carnage on the evening news–I call my dad. In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was murdered, I called Dad to make sure he was OK. After all, the old man was pushing 60. I called him after 9/11 to make sure I was OK. After all, I was in my 60s. Being a frequent subway rider in New York, I even called him after the recent train bombings in Madrid, which killed 190 people. I knew he would calm me down. After all, he’s pushing 100.
Pushing 100. Lipsyte’s article says the Census Bureau tells us this country can point to more than 50,000 citizens of that age or better. “The so-called oldest old (over 85) are the fastest growing segment of the population. If we’re lucky, the rest of us will become them.”
Oh my. I’m now among the oldest old. (I turned 85 last March.)
The other article comes from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal of Tupelo, also from 2004, only two days earlier. A medical doctor, Joe Bailey, is paying tribute to the M.D. who influenced his life. It’s a story for the ages.
The Bailey family were farmers, Dr. Joe says, but since his mother refused to live anywhere but in town, they lived in Coffeeville, MS, population 600. Their home was precisely across the street from the town doctor, H. O. Leonard.