I met Mr Roy for the first time at a local restaurant. He was with his wife and a grandson. This gentleman is a senior to seniors. But there was something else about him that caught my eye. I’ll call it a kind of contentment. It seemed he would not be hard to please, to care for. The family members who fixed his plate would likely not have to be concerned they didn’t get it right. It appeared that a caregiver might receive as much from Mr Roy as they give.
I could have been seen as a professional eaves-dropper, a sleuth or private investigator. Not so. I haven’t reached that pay grade yet. I’m only an amateur with a tenacious curiosity! I squinted to be sure I was right about what Mr Roy was reading. Yep, the young sophomore senior (me) got it right. The senior senior was reading the New York Times! Can you imagine! I caught an old veteran fighter pilot in rural central Georgia sitting in a sweet potato soufflé and collard greens buffet hangout poring over the New York Times. Amazing!
There are interesting stories about Mr Roy’s experiences at the controls of a P-51 fighter during World War II. He saw the mushroom cloud of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He flew on a low-level picture-taking mission to record the damage by the dropping of the second atom bomb over Nagasaki. For more on that era of Mr Roy’s life, please see a story by historian Scott Thompson at http://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2012/12/roy-malone.html.
Please also read a story of a later time in this dear gentleman’s life (“gentleman” is not just a polite title, Mr Roy earned those “stripes”). You will have the pleasure of visiting Goose Hollow Farm at Dexter, Georgia, through the eyes of a very talented writer, Sophie Uliano. I found her descriptive appreciation of the farm’s beauty at https://sophieuliano.com/children-in-the-woods/. Ms Uliano “lost” her child in the woods at a good ole southern fish fry where she learned that a hush puppy is not a command for a dog to be quiet!
On this Memorial Day and until next one, I invite us all to acknowledge the families of fallen military service veterans and the lives and service of their loved ones. May we pray for and encourage those veterans and their families whose lives and daily routines are changed through their service on our behalf. Let’s give thanks for all those who returned safely and pray for the safety of those who are actively serving.
Thank you, Mr Roy, and all your fellow defenders of the greatest place in the world to live and eat hush puppies with fried fish in the woods!
Words and People 