Elizabeth: 83 Years of Age and Still Going Strong - Essay Example

HERE HERE YOUR HERE HERE ELIZABETH: 83 Years of Age and Still Going Strong Elizabeth was born in 1925 during a timeperiod where women were just beginning to have the same rights as men. The interview subject was born in Norfolk, Virginia and came from parents who were financially secure and part of the upper-middle-class at the time. After the Great Depression, which began in 1929, Elizabeth’s parents lost a great deal of money in stocks. Her mother, for the first time in her life, was forced to work when her father lost two of his small businesses. In 1938, her parents were divorced because her mother could not adjust to a lower income lifestyle and she never saw her again. This was very unusual for the time period and it stirred up a great deal of controversy in the local community back in the 1930’s. Her mother married a wealthier man and moved into a Chicago luxury apartment. In 1946, her mother was killed in a car accident on a roadway in Illinois. Elizabeth, in 1943, was being pressured to work by her father because she did not desire to go to college. At age 18, she believed that college did not teach the important lessons or let people witness true lifestyle and culture. Essentially, college just was not for Elizabeth. Elizabeth took a job as a bookkeeper at her father’s general store where she worked until she was married in 1950. Elizabeth met Charles, her first husband, in 1947 after the war had finally ended. Charles was a short man, only 5 ½ feet tall, who had gone bald prematurely. Elizabeth always thought he was a “funny looking man” but she loved him more than any other person she had ever met in her lifetime (Personal Interview). Charles was also in the upper-middle-class and provided Elizabeth with a wonderful life on the East Coast, however Charles was infertile and could not provide her with children. Elizabeth said that she never regretted not having children because instead of having to maintain a household and ensure the well-being of children she was free to take trips to other countries and explore her personal and social needs. Elizabeth was asked about some of her most memorable moments in her childhood or her adult life. She chose to discuss two specific situations: One involved her life in the 1960’s and her own personal experience with terrorism in 1976. Most of her life, Elizabeth admits that she was very much for segregation because she grew up in social ignorance and had become accustomed to different drinking fountains and bathrooms for people who were of different ethnicity. In 1964, however, Elizabeth had a life-changing experience which radically changed her viewpoint on segregation which changed her entire social lifestyle for the rest of her life. An African-American woman had been hired to help, twice weekly, to clean their home. After several months of working at their home, the woman lost one of her children to tuberculosis. The very next day after the funeral, the woman actually returned to the house to clean and did an extraordinary job. Stunned that the woman had so much devotion to cleaning after a terrible tragedy, Elizabeth went to get money to give her a very big tip ($200, which was worth much more than that in the 1960’s). The woman put her hand on Elizabeth’s and refused the money saying that life could not stop because the Lord had taken her child. From that day forward, until the woman moved to Arkansas in the mid-1970’s, Elizabeth treated her like a family friend and not a housekeeper having found new respect for African-Americans. Secondly, Elizabeth was involved in a terrorism situation when she was vacationing in Europe in 1976. She had been eating with her husband at a café in Germany when followers of some local cult began ransacking the community. She was sipping coffee and talking of the fun they were having when suddenly there was nothing but chaos. People were throwing furniture through windows and looting the local shops trying to spread their hate messages. One person from the café was shot in the leg as they tried to run. Finally, the police were able to manage the scene, however Elizabeth was stuck behind a table for several hours and kept hearing the sound of gunfire the whole time. Elizabeth said that this was a life-changing moment for her which was the first time she really found any connection with spirituality. She said Charles took the situation even worse and could not be convinced to take any international trips all the way up until his death a few years later. Charles had a heart attack in 1980 and never fully recovered. In early 1981, Charles died of complications with pneumonia and heart trouble. Determined not to give up on life, Elizabeth remarried David in 1985 at age 60. She immediately had nothing but problems with David’s adult children, who were in their 30’s, who constantly tried to make Elizabeth feel worthless. They always talked about her behind her back and said that Elizabeth was only out to get their father’s money. No matter how hard Elizabeth tried, the children treated her like a second class citizen. Finally, Elizabeth told David’s children right at a big, fancy wedding that the children could go ahead and hate her but they would only be “losing their father in the process” (Personal Interview). Later, as the wedding was winding down, all of David’s children went up to the microphone together to tell every guest that they had treated Elizabeth poorly for several years and asked for her forgiveness. To this day, even though David passed away in 2002, Elizabeth still sees her stepchildren at least twice a year. Elizabeth was asked to provide what she found to be her fondest memories from each decade of her life. In the 1930’s, Elizabeth said her fondest memories were when she met Judy Garland on a public relations tour for songs from the Wizard of Oz. Elizabeth said that Ms. Garland was very demanding and had a bad attitude. Garland’s words to Elizabeth were, “Would you mind, terribly?!” as she felt Elizabeth was standing too close (Personal Interview). In the 1940’s, Elizabeth was in New York when World War II ended and was part of the giant ticker-tape parade which was famous for the kissing scene between the soldier and the happy girl. Elizabeth said that the joy and friendship were “so thick in the air you could cut it with a knife” (Personal Interview). In the 1950’s, it was when she took up canvas painting and learned that she was very artistic. In the 1960’s it was her change in social attitudes which turned a somewhat spoiled and sassy young woman into a diverse-thinking lady. In the 1970’s, Elizabeth had a dog which she cherished named Mitzy. Mitzy was a French, long-haired poodle who had a taste for alcohol. She and Mitzy used to sip cocktails and sit by the fireplace and she took the dog wherever she went. Mitzy died in the middle 1980’s. In the 1980’s, Elizabeth’s fondest memory involved the purchase of her new house with two built-in swimming pools, one indoors and one outdoors. Her first husband Charles would not buy her one so, when she remarried, she decided it was time to get what she wanted. After David’s death, Elizabeth could no longer take care of the big house by herself and she moved into a relatively small condominium where she lives today. In the 1990’s, Elizabeth, even being in her late 60’s, took an interest in jazz music. She and several of her long-time female friends began attending Mardis Gras and other jazz-related festivals. She said this spiced up her social life and made her feel like a young woman again. Each time Elizabeth discusses her older friends, she gets obviously emotional. In 2000, Elizabeth remembers the Y2K problem where society was worried that everything technological would be reduced to worthless machinery and society as we know it would come to an end. Elizabeth attended a big New Year’s Eve party with her stepchildren that year and just about 15 minutes after midnight, when everyone was content that the Y2K issue was only a hoax, the power went out suddenly. It came back on after about ten minutes, however everyone at the party was terrified that the world was actually going to come to an end. She said when the lights came back on, everyone laughed at themselves and it became one of the best parties she’d ever attended in her entire lifetime. She said one woman even tore her evening dress when the lights went out as she tried to crawl through the doorway for fear of being bombed by the Y2K problem. It was an amusing part of the interview and Elizabeth laughed until she started to cry. Elizabeth was further asked to offer one specific learning lesson about life that she would give to other young adults to help them prepare for their life experiences. Elizabeth said that keeping an open mind is probably the most beneficial learning in the world. Even more than education and career, she believes that having flexibility toward all types of situations will make you someone who can contribute better to society and have a more enriching lifestyle in the process. She believes that having a closed mind will only bring you associates and not friends which will take away from quality living. Life, Elizabeth believes, moves too quickly if you are too rigid in thinking. Elizabeth was asked what she thought was the single-most important life event which shaped who she is today. She replied simply, “War” (Personal Interview). Elizabeth believes that when countries go to war, it changes how people look at the world and others. She believes that society gets so wrapped up discussion about wartime events that they forget about the people involved in the situations and the horrors they face. Elizabeth believes that the country does very little to honor or assist war veterans and has always thought it was a shame that they are treated poorly after experiencing wartime situations. Elizabeth currently donates thousands of dollars each year to causes which help disabled and mentally-disturbed war veterans. She and her lady friends have established a network with Purple Heart to make sure that veterans returning home have a car and what is needed for them to have a healthy return to work and not have to be humiliated by going on government assistance or other social programs. Elizabeth is a very upbeat person, however her extended years are clearly visible on her face. She looks every bit her age, however she speaks like a wise individual with a very knowledgeable focus on what drives healthy relationships and the life of the married individual. She appears to have no real regrets in life and it is clear that she believes her life has been both enriching and interesting. She still has a great deal of money in the bank and, amusingly, she is not afraid to let others know it. She chooses to live modestly today because she is simply too tired and frail to maintain a big house and she is not the type of person who is flashy about her lifestyle. She drinks only top shelf liquor (yes, she still drinks!) and she still dabbles in painting even though she has arthritis and it is sometimes difficult for her to pick up a brush. Much can be learned about life through talking with Elizabeth and she is surely a woman who has truly seen it all and done it all. At 83, this is a tremendous accomplishment and she is worthy of respect and honor for living a full life. Works Cited Personal Interview, Elizabeth Brown. 1 Dec 2008. Read More