Overheard at Senior Homes, Part 8

A resident carves a block in my senior printmaking class.

I teach writing and printmaking classes at senior homes in Los Angeles. Over the years, I’ve kept a journal of the memorable things I’ve seen and heard.

At a senior home in Hollywood, I met a man named Joe who had an artificial leg. He was always smiling and telling jokes. I asked how he stayed so positive despite losing a leg, losing his wife, battling cancer and surviving two heart attacks. He told me it goes back to his EOD days (“Explosive Ordinance Disposal”) in the military. He worked with a team of technicians who defused bombs during the Korean War. Several peers died in explosions while others lost limbs.

Joe told me about the day he and his buddy came upon an unexploded landmine. Military policy dictated that one soldier disable the bomb while the other stayed with the vehicle in case something went wrong. They flipped a coin. Joe’s friend called heads. It came up tails. Joe watched from his jeep as the mine exploded and his friend was torn to pieces. “A fragment of shrapnel ripped into my right thigh,” he said. “It ultimately became infected and they had to amputate my leg at the knee. But I survived. I could’ve been the one working on the mine. From that day forward, I appreciate every day above ground. I consider myself the luckiest man in the world.”

*****