Dear Editor:
Kudos to Kat Teraji for her recent column on Gilroyan LaRhee
Nicols who turned 102 years young on Easter Sunday.
Dear Editor:
Kudos to Kat Teraji for her recent column on Gilroyan LaRhee Nicols who turned 102 years young on Easter Sunday. Kat writes on many germane topics, but I particularly enjoy her stories featuring an oft-untapped, yet superb natural resource, our citizens in their golden years.
There are many (even young ones!) in our culture who are so driven by their seemingly obsessive need to stop the aging process – at any cost – that they may likely miss the wonderful lessons in growing older that a careful observation of people like LaRhee can teach us.
My family has been blessed to know Mrs. Nichols for nearly three decades. She and so many like her don’t tell others what to do. They just quietly live in relation to their fellow beings, each and every day, with humaneness, grace, dignity, and often an unfailing sense of humor. What an antidote for any crotchety inclinations we may feel coming on – if only we’d pay attention.
Ray Bradbury wrote a charming story years ago entitled “The Time Machine” – not to be confused with H.G. Wells’ novel of the same title. The time machine in Bradbury’s tale is a charming old gentleman, Colonel Freeleigh. Three young lads in his neighborhood discover that by listening to the Colonel’s stories, they are miraculously transported to riveting events and places of the past that they could not have otherwise experienced in such vibrant detail. What adventures they enjoy, and what a grand thing for kids – to have much older folks in their lives who are also their good friends.
I urge the young, especially, to do as these boys did – and as Kat Teraji does. Spend some time with senior citizens and hear their stories. Then remember what you’ve heard. You’re apt to be taken on an unforgettable journey down an information highway that the Internet, for all its technological capacity, lacks the spunk and grace to achieve.
Claudia Salewske, Gilroy
Submitted Wednesday, May 5 to ed****@****ic.com
