I’m halfway through the project. It feels like I have been doing this forever and for no time at all.
Over the past 25 days I have heard the stories of so many wonderful people. I’ve been privileged to listen to their childhood memories, words of wisdom and dreams for the future. It’s quite special. Part of me will be glad when I have finished, not at all the part where I get to meet and talk to people, just the daily panic of the achievement and the late night writing!
I’ve definitely decided though that I will go on with the life stories, a few more questions, a bit more time spent. I think we can all learn from each other, I’m learning so much. The biggest lesson so far has been to appreciate life, suck it up and enjoy it, revel in it, seek out new experiences and just go for it.
My next subject has lived a life. A good one. I see Jim every day, almost. We have nodded in a gesture of hello but never spoken. He sits in his cabinet behind a barn door in his overalls and reminds me so much of Giuseppe..Pinocchio’s Father. His lovely kind face, his wise, strong hands, marked with the lines of age fixing, repairing and making new.
There is something so comforting about his face. Perhaps it’s because I missed out on a relationship with a Father and a Grandfather that I am so happy in his company, listening to the lovely lilt of Virginia in his voice, telling his story, his smiling eyes shining.
Name: James (Jim)
Occupation: Vietnam Veteran, With a Bronze Star
Retired – Vice President of Operations for Telecoms Corporation
Soon To Be Retired Locker Room Attendent at Isleworth Country Club
1.Where were you born & raised?
The Coal Fields of West Virginia in 1946
A poverty stricken town with the mines closing, starting in the 1950’s.
‘I love sports, I played baseball and football, I played football in High School.’
I asked Jim about his parents.
They were great parents, unfortunately I lost my Father when I was 15, he had a heart attack when he was 44.’ ‘He was Mine Foreman at the Coal mine where he worked and there was a lot of stress and pressure so he had a massive heart attack then there years later he died.’ ‘He and I fished a lot together and I remember that.’
2.Tell me a childhood memory.
‘Well, one thing that my Mother didn’t like hearing years and years later, my birthday is February 16th and my best friend and I every February 16th we would go to a mountain lake and we would go for a skinny dip on my birthday, so we always remembered that. My Mother always wondered why we never caught pneumonia.’
3.What is your favourite season & why?
‘I guess I like the Spring more than anything, you really don’t get the seasons much in Florida but in other parts of the country where I have lived its the Spring and it seems like everything is new, starting to grow and in some cases finally all the snow has gone’.
4. Tell me about someone you love.
‘Well it’s gotta be my Wife. We’ve just celebrated this past December our 50th Wedding Anniversary. We were high school sweethearts and were married just before I went into the Army, here we are 50 years later and I love her very much. We’ve got two grown children, both boys and one Grandchild, his name is Carlton and he has just graduated from High School.’
‘She has been very supportive of me during my career, we have moved 16 times all across the United States and she has been very supportive of the move.’
‘We used to have a Friday night dance and I met her at the dance after the football game.’
‘She was such a good dancer.’ ‘Her name is Sherrie.’
5.What words of wisdom do you have for the reader about life?
‘Life gives you what you give life, don’t expect something for nothing. If you work hard and you stay focused it will come. If you are there looking for the handout then you are not going to be very happy.’
6.Dreams for the future.
‘Well, I’m seventy, so my real active years certainly are behind me. My wife and I have already decided that we are not going to be world travellers but if we decided that we wanna go some place for a night or to, spend the night, have dinner out then thats what we’ll do. I’ll play a little more golf and practice some too.’
Jim told me lots of stories about the people he has met whilst working at Isleworth. He is sad to be leaving but cannot cope with the commute anymore, he will definitely be missed from there and they are worse off without him.
I imagined him this evening as I write these words, slippers on, feet up with the crossword on his lap, perhaps nodding off a little in his armchair. Sherrie watching her favourite show on the TV and them discussing their children or Carlton their grandson and talking about what is happening at the weekend. It’s not exciting stuff but its life and one well lived. I pray that they will be together for a long time and that God sees fit to keep them in each others company so they can enjoy those dinners out and nights away and a few more rounds of golf in the sun.
Jim has a lovely face, a handsome young man he would have been too, I’m sure. You just want to reach out and touch the lines on his face, perhaps they can tell you all about the life he has had, imagine a little how he felt when he fell in love, left his young bride when he was only nineteen years old to serve in a cruel, painful war. Held his first born for the first time in his big capable hands.
All the benchmarks & significant moments in life, etched on his face like a carving in a big strong oak tree.
