Pass The Morning Irish Coffee and Make It a Double!

Make no mistake, in our active senior living community, our early Tuesday morning Breakfast Club isn’t made up of teenage juvenile delinquents like in the 1985 hit movie The Breakfast Club, but rather seniors ages 70’s, 80’,s and one incredible 92-year-old. Lenny is a retired principal from an inner-city big school. This treasure has an acute brain, an arresting manner, that when he speaks, his soothing words and mannerisms are like a panacea for all that ails you and nowadays in such turbulent times that could be everything!

Pass the morning Irish coffee, will ya? And make it a double — -at least!

I tell ya, everyone at our 18-seated table wants to be just like Lenny when we all grow-up, but hey, what am I talking about? We already are, but some of us may be going the other way! Mr. Easy-on-your- ears sits at the head of the table, allowing him extra room for his seated walker with wheels — -the tiger! Sturdy of mind, but feeble in body, he is pure entertainment.

Being such a selfish hog, I always manage to wiggle my way into a seat next to his, but while there’s sunshine and honey on my one side, there’s total darkness and vinegar on the other. Yep, “Ms. Putrid Personality,” who retired from some high-powered job in a metropolitan city, uses a harsh, condescending tone, and she emits about as much warmth as an ice castle. But in every flower garden there is bound to be at least one strangling weed. Pass the poison, will ya? Okay, in fairness to her, no, there is no fairness! There is no excuse for her rudeness, boorishness, and intimidation.

We, the rest of us, are a cheerful, light-hearted, and helpful bunch and it is such a delightful way to start the day. We are mainly comprised of women because everybody knows, females generally outlive the men, well, not always. Oh, why do I keep coming back to her?

Across the table there are residents here who are so sincere, sweet, and delightful, so I should be profiling them. But guess what? Such endearing qualities are incredible to witness in real-life, but in the written world, readers want characters who practically jump right off the page who are so real and alive! Many think that they are reading about themselves, the real people they are or wish to be. And what do you know, what a lead-in to go back to inspirational Lenny. Inconspicuously, I lean over and whisper to him. “I bet you were fun to work with, but how did you ever oversee the teachers who maybe had to be discipled, or sometimes even, you know, fired?”

There is no whispering to a 92-year-old whose hearing might not be as acute as his brain, but son-of-a-gun, if he didn’t hear every word, and it was I who asked if he could speak louder.

“I seldom reprimanded and never was able to fire any teacher because I was a coward.”

If a Cheshire grin hadn’t swept across his adorable face, I might have thought he was serious until he validated that unbelievable remark. “When I was younger and thought I was so cool and debonair in my looks and manner, I had to call a certain teacher down to my office. She was a wonderful, interesting person, but it didn’t carry over into her classroom. I was all set to have the dreaded talk with her when she sweetly reached over, patted my shoulder, and said, “Oh, you’re such a darling man and you remind me so much of my husband.”

“Now who wouldn’t give a lady with such impeccable taste, a second, maybe even a third chance? Not only did I see myself as a real looker, classy person, innocent charmer, and even having a bonus of being fair-minded, to boot! A month later at our school’s Open House, you should have seen the poor, pale, scrawny, sad, sack of a man, who looked like he couldn’t manage his way out of an elevator, and he introduced himself as….”

But Lenny couldn’t go on because he broke out into laughing convulsions, taking me along with him. And that, my dear readers, is probably why he has lived such a long, fruitful, rewarding life. He saw humor in even a real blow to his inflated ego. He survived going from what he believed he was, savvy looking, to what many fools would think not worth even writing about. You are right; this jewel of a man is worth seeing in real life!

As we continue to be lucky enough to keep aging, keep seeking out the Lennies out there.

And if you don’t? In many ways it can be the difference between a short, lonely life, or a long more enjoyable one.

The choice is yours, so if not now, when?