Johnnie's 86

I'm writing about this experience because it is becoming more rare everyday. As my wife and I left Johnnie in the mall I said to him, "I'm grateful to have met you. Most people like you are already gone. It gave us peace to meet you." And I meant it.

I'm 60 and my wife is 53. People who fought in World War II were very common when we were growing up and we took them for granted. Now they are all dying one by one. My wife's father died this summer. He was a Navy Supply officer and helped build the main Iceland Airport during World War II and the Airport at Tinian Island that the Enola Gay landed at before it dropped a nuke on Japan. If you think times are tough now you didn't live through the Great Depression and World War II.

So, for my wife to meet another World War II veteran that wasn't dead or crazy was a blessing for her. The level of discipline these old gentlemen had and still have(in some cases) is amazing.

At the mall my wife wanted to try Mongolian Chicken Teriaki that I had had a few months before so we went to the Mongolian venue to order. Johnnie was there ordering too. I could tell he was lonely but he also reminded me of Native American Medicine men I had met especially during the 1980s. I felt very mixed because I wasn't sure of the situation. So when he struck up a conversation with my wife I decided to step back and watch and observe and wait and see.

It turned out Johnnie had just lost his wife of 50 years. This explained his loneliness to me. He said she had died of Alzheimers and that he spent every day with her in the rest home from 9 am until 9 pm until she died. I thought of the discipline it must have taken to do that. That would have made me crazy to do that. So, I immediately had respect for this 86 year old man. He pulled out his pictures of his almost grown or fully grown grandchildren and I realized that he was an amazing old man in many ways when he said he had been married for 50 years. He still limped from getting shot in the leg on a Pacific Island during World War II and said how his wife dying hurt him more than his injury when he got either a bullet or shrapnel in his leg while landing on a Pacific Island during a battle in world war II.

He said he was Navaho and Apache and spoke both English and Spanish. He vibed a lot like Cheifs and medicine men I had met before. He spoke of how he was taught to respect everyone by his father. When we had to leave after eating our lunch at his table I thought he would cry. He said how he would miss us and we said we hoped we would see him here in the future.

I greatly miss the genuine quality and sincerity and politeness and respect of his generation. Just knowing there still are a few of these wonderful, kind, disciplined sincere people around whose character was shaped and created by World War II gives me hope for mankind in the future. I found in talking to him my fear for mankind's future went away(at least for today).