Beautiful at 97!

Good Saturday Morning!

I am in the throes of having a couple of rooms painted and everything is in a jumble. The going is slow because I keep finding treasures among the many useful articles I have squirreled away in my home. In addition to thread, beads, yarn and piles of manuscript, I found a number of photographs. Some were of me performing at various venues, a few were photos I took when I was a reporter for a small town daily.

I liked writing the news, it was both inspiring and educational to sit in city and county work meetings and to learn how government really works; but my real love was doing the 'good news' - features about the exceptional people who lived quietly and did remarkable things.

One of these remarkable people was Miss Nora Foxwell of Elliotts Island here in Maryland. In order to reach the island one must travel to the little town of Vienna (which missed being the state capital by a cat's whisker) and turn right for a 20-mile treck through the forests and marshlands of Dorchester County. Twenty miles is a right good way to travel to buy a quart of milk or loaf of bread, but Miss Nora kept those things and more at her little island store and the island's residents had the supplies they needed.

The photo today was taken when Miss Nora was 97 years old! The remarkable thing is that she was still keeping store when I made this portrait. We had a good long visit as I sat with my tape recorder running and my camera at the ready. Miss Nora talked about her youth, going to school on the island, her marriage, the changes she had seen, and the little store, which was the cornerstone of her life. When she began to declaim a poem learned years before for my enjoyment, her face lit up and I could see the same sort of bliss as often occurs on the face of a child with an all day sucker.

I was really lucky to capture this image because Miss Nora didn't live out the next winter. I was really glad I met her. She taught me something about enjoying life and being useful. I want to be just like her when I grow up!

Keep on the sunny side! Terry