09-11-01 ... There Has Never Been A Time
When We Needed You More!

(This is an article written by Barbara Jack and published in the Senior Scene Newspaper)

Tuesday I had planned to put the finishing touches on a keynote address. I was presenting it on Thursday for a group of senior citizens. I had my topic prepared and then at about 7:45 AM on September 11th I turned on the TV. At first I thought I was looking at the special effects of a new movie. Then I heard the familiar news voices and knew that was not the case. Like everyone else, my agenda for the day changed as I watch the attacks on New York and Washington DC

At the end of the day, I sat in the tub and listened to quiet music while trying to get the knots out of my stomach. I had known all day the topic for the seniors had changed. I needed to take a break and figure out exactly what the new topic was. Earlier in the week my husband and I had watched "Band of Brothers" and had been talking about our relatives who fought in WWII. My favorite Uncle Tom had been a navigator over Europe, my Uncle Helmer an airplane mechanic in North Africa and my Uncle Irvin had fought in the jungles of the South Pacific. They all came home.  Praise the Lord!  Irvin came home fighting malaria and when he tried to sleep, he was still in the jungle fighting in hand to hand combat.  He remembered the faces of the enemy and their eyes at bayonet distance.  After returning to the states, he spent some time sleeping on our couch in our tiny Lacey house.  I was about 5 years old, and still remember waking to the sound of his screams of terror and war.  No one spoke of post traumatic stress in 1944.  He could not live with his memories....and between the memories and the malaria, he didn't live long.  What I have left of Uncle Irvin is a folded flag.  I got it out of the cedar chest and took it to the memorial service down town.

 As I sat in the tub the music changed and I heard the sound track from Schindler's List, the powerful movie of the holocaust.  It had been filmed in black and white and looked like the newsreels that brought us our visual news as I grew up.  It struck me that the views of the streets of New York also looked like black and white newsreel footage.  And just as senseless and unbelievable as what I had watched all day.  The survivors of the holocaust must have had nightmares for a long time.  The amazing part of their story for me, has always been that they did not let the horror destroy them.  They mourned their dead, honored their heroes and lived life to the fullest.  Likewise, the Americans after World War II did not let the horror and their great losses stop them from building the strongest country in the world.

That was it.....that is what the seniors needed to be reminded of and honored for. That was what I, at 63, needed to be reminded of. We are survivors and we need to tell our children and our grand children what that means. Our children have not experienced a Pearl Harbor, or a Normandy Beach.....most of them do not remember Vietnam over the dinner table. There has never been a time when we needed our senior citizens more. Our senior citizens are the "wise elders" of our culture. They are the memory keepers, the story tellers, the preservers of our vision.

I encouraged them all to tell their families these important things:
I love you
My values include
This is not the end of the world
This is what I felt on Dec. 7, 1941
This is how we lived through it
I love you
We are together in this

Young children especially need to hear these topics verbalized.  A good friend of mine who lived in London as a young girl during WWII, emailed a message reminding me of something we had discussed some months back.  I had asked her what memories she had of the bombing raids. Here is what she wrote this week: I was a child in London at the time (of the war).  Memories are still there but though it was fearful, the strongest memory is the love and care of parents and their strong faith in God and the peace gained when they prayed with us.  I couldn't have told you it was, "peace " but I knew when we prayed (often) my worries and fears were gone.

Our children need to come out of these dark days with strong memories of the love and care of parents, grandparents, and friends.  They also need to have a knowledge of what these people believe in.  On Pearl Harbor day, my family owned a small gas station/store with 12 tourist cabins in Lacey.  My grandparents lived behind the store.  My family lived in one of the cabins.  Soon the rest of the tiny cabins were mostly filled with young families trying to stay together until the father shipped out from Fort Lewis.  I went from playing cowboy to soldier.  My first night in a tent was in a pup tent with the young kids of a soldier.  At about 4, my favorite song was Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.  Soon both Daddy and Grandpa worked at Ft Lewis.  Before the war ended we had all moved on post.  Through all of this, because my family was around me and talked to me, I did not fear.

Our children need to be surrounded by our arms and their heritage.

Here are some ways for seniors to go about it passing on their own stories:
Sit around a table and talk
Write letters or email
Tape record it
Best of all, video tape it

It seems to me that the greatest gift a senior can give their family is to sit down before a video camera and tell the family stories, values, and firm foundations that get people through the dark days.  In fact, if someone would loan their video camera to the church or senior center, the seniors could bring in a tape and simply talk before the camera.  If they weren't sure what to say, someone could ask them questions.  Their families would treasure these tapes.  And America would become stronger.  This is valuable information that will pass on the values and also the strength.

Nothing would make me happier than to see this idea spread across the country with millions of people ending up with valuable family history as told by their very own wise elders. Be sure to tell all senior citizens that there has never been a time when we needed them more. Let's spread the wise elder idea, seniors.

For a related article, see PHONE HOME