THE FONT OF KNOWLEDGE

Wisdom comes from many types of people, young and old, but I have found the elderly to be "the font of knowledge."

For the past few days I have been caring for my lovely mother-in-law, Gertie, who has had her left eye covered over surgically as a result of losing a corneal transplant at the age of 87!

In these days of recovery, I watch as Gertie struggles with pain and the inability to see out of one eye. She always arises at the same time she has for her full life, and she showers, and she coifs her hair neatly into a stylish do, and she dresses in clean and pressed clothes that enhance her figure, and she dons her platform shoes, and she makes her way down a long staircase, and walks through each day with graceful balance. And I am taught without a word.

Gertie worked as a nurse and has been married for 60+ years to her husband, John, who is a noted doctor. John survived a quadruple bypass at 85 and now lives in a good nursing home, although Gertie cared for him in their home for the past four years until his elderly dementia took him away. John will turn 90 this year. Both have survived their oldest daughter, Candace, who died in 2000 at the age of 54 from leukemia. But Gertie dotes over the five children she still has with her, along with four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her granddaughter, Mila, told me once that Gertie was her hero, and I didn't have to ask why. Gertie breathes out vigor, and it becomes the breath that we all take in when we are privileged to be around her.

Today is Memorial Day.

Yesterday, Gertie and her daughter Susie visited the 5-years-young tree the family planted in Candace's honor in the Iowa City park she loved near Gertie's home. Now, Gertie sits holding Mila's young pug dog--her namesake--in a chair on her screened in porch that overlooks the robust yard and gardens she's filled with wildflowers and bushes, color beyond belief. A massive Oak tree lords over all, boasting 150 years of life and the rope swings and soft feet of every one of Gertie's children and grandchildren for the past 50+ of those years.

Gertie has always read constantly, sometimes several books on various topics at the same time. She still does--yes, with one eye. Today, her favorite newspaper, The New York Times, failed to show up at the edge of her gravel drive in its bright-blue plastic wrapper, as it has faithfully for 20 years. So Gertrude MacQueen, 87 years old, one good eye, a mere 10 days out of major surgery, is reading Carol Schaffer's new book, Grandmothers Counsel the World.

Indeed, they do. Indeed, Gertie does. They are the font of knowledge we should all lovingly drink from if we really want to live.

Nan