Editorial Introduction : Older Than Airplanes

by Persephone

Two years ago, my great-grandmother spend several weeks in the hospital. She was 98 years old, and her kidneys failed. It was a very serious situation, and we honestly thought it was time for her to leave us. My great-grandfather had passed away in 1988, and my grandmother--their only child--had passed away in 1999.

We spent a lot of time at the hospital that summer. And as the weeks passed...my grandma got better. Slowly but surely, she recovered.

Her doctors were stunned. My family was amazed and delighted. Grandma Wilcox founded an empire when she had my grandmother, and even though we know she's old and actually quite ready to go at any time, we really would like to keep her for a while longer.

Yesterday, April 19th, 2003, we celebrated her 100th birthday with her. It was wonderful. So many relatives and friends showed up, wishing her well, looking at pictures, and marvelling at how lucky we are to have this woman in our lives.

Grandma is a devout Methodist. She can no longer get out and go to the church she's attended all of her life, so her minister visits her on a regular basis. He was in attendance at the birthday party yesterday, and I took the title of this essay from something he said during his benediction. He said that he was looking through the encyclopedia, for a historical event that had taken place around the time of my grandma's birth. He discovered, to our delight, that my grandma is older than airplanes (well, maybe not older than airplanes after all...read CalMeacham's article for more information.) Grandma was born in April of 1903, and the Wright Brothers took wing later that year, in December. Pretty cool, huh?

Why am I telling you all of this? Posterity, really. I'm hoping that someday, someone will read this little piece, think it's cool, and maybe delve into their own life history. Or think that Teemings is cool, join the boards and submit something more, thus keeping the SDMB community alive, fresh, and interesting.

They say that as long as one is remembered, one never really dies. If that is true, then my grandma will probably never die. I hope that's the way this magazine ends up, too. Living forever, always infused with new people and fresh ideas.

Will Teemings and the SDMB live for a hundred years? I don't know. But it sure would be neat, wouldn't it?