How Old Were They? Théodore Chassériau

Théodore Chassériau at age 15 became the youngest painter ever exhibited in the Louvre. He was a Dominican-born French Romantic painter known for portraits, historical and religious paintings, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to Algeria. A prolific draftsman, he made a set of prints illustrating Shakespeare’s “Othello” and his 1834 portrait of Prosper Marilhat was hung in the world-famous museum. Driven to exhaustion while completing a series of commissions, he died at age 37. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

A portrait created at age 15 made Chasseriau the youngest painter exhibited in the Louvre

Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed

How Old Were They? Bill Wilson

Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous at age 40. An Army veteran and businessman who struggled with depression and alcohol, he crashed five years after the 1929 stock market and checked into a hospital, where he overcame drinking through the spiritual principles propounded by the Oxford Group. Several years later, tempted to drink again, he contacted a fellow patient, surgeon Robert Smith. Their five-hour conversation led them to found AA in 1935. After a Saturday Evening Post article about AA in 1941, the organization took off in popularity. Today, AA has more than 2 million members worldwide. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous helped himself, which now helps 2 million members worldwide

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

What I’m Reading: Leave the Kid Alone by Steve Zettler

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Leave the Kid Alone: A Fractured Remembrance (Rated 5) – Inn-side Story. In his coming-of-age memoir, Leave the Kid Alone: A Fractured Remembrance, Steve Zettler offers an entertaining mix of youthful innocence overlaid with adult wit. In short, pithy chapters, the book zips along as quickly as childhood itself. Young Stevie’s (mis)perceptions about the world are at once hilariously off target and astutely on the mark. Growing up in a family-owned inn in rural Pennsylvania, Zettler is exposed to people from widely different backgrounds. What he doesn’t learn from his tough Navy veteran father and outspoken schoolteacher mother, he learns from the guests and staff, who range from the New York City celebrities who come to “shack up” for the weekend to the hardened “stew bums” who man the kitchen, pretty waitresses, and street-wise bartenders. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page, I admire Zettler’s skill bringing each character to life on the page. Like many children with families in the hospitality business, he was expected to work. Much as he missed playing with his classmates, he recognized the “silver lining” of his position. Literally, he got paid. Metaphorically, he learned things that enriched his knowledge beyond that of his peers. The closed world of the inn opened Zettler to the bigger world of human experience that is captured in his endearing and entertaining recollections.

The world of an inn seen through a 7-year-old’s eyes

Why writers read: “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” – Ernest Hemingway

Old Were They? The Munchkins

The 124 Munchkins in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz were mostly adult actors with pituitary dwarfism. Only ten, aged 7 to 9, were children of normal height. The youngest non-child, Margaret Pellegrini, was 16. The oldest little person, Meinhardt Raabe, was 24. [Note: My novel A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. is a fictional biography of Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner.] Toto the dog was five. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

All but 10 of the 124 Munchkins were adults with pituitary dwarfism

Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed

A fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner

How Old Were They? John A. Roebling

John A. Roebling was 63 when he designed the Brooklyn Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world at that time. Born in 1806 in Prussia, Roebling emigrated to the U.S. at age 25. Work on the span began in 1869 and was completed in 1883. Tragically, the architect died from a tetanus infection during the bridge’s construction, but his son, Washington Roebling, finished the project. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge architect, died before the project was completed

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

What I’m Reading: Whistler by Ann Patchett

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Whistler: A Novel by Ann Patchett (Rated 5 – Surprise and Inevitability. Whistler: A Novel by Ann Patchett is a small quiet book about the big noisy subject of love. Love in its infinite combinations, between parents and children, spouses, siblings, humans and animals, people and their work. Love that boasts its presence and the love that “dare not speak its name.” Love that calls to us and, like Whistler, the horse of the book’s title, shows up to save us. Patchett creates unforgettable characters. Life has been kinder to some than others, yet each finds a way to survive. Some are instantly endearing: Protagonists Daphne and Eddie, a middle-aged woman who accidentally meets the stepfather who abruptly left the family when she was nine; Daphne’s considerate and down-to-earth husband Jonathan. Others, like Daphne’s birth father Buddy, set up to be villains, turn out to be mensches. And even the real baddies, Eddie’s overbearing friends Skip and Polly, merit sympathy as victims of the social norms that force people into compromising roles they wouldn’t have chosen for themselves. Patchett creates a network of ties among people brought together by chance whose relationships nevertheless feel meant to be. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire her ability to make surprise and inevitability coexist on the page. Whistler is a satisfying and deceptively deep book.

Rekindling a lost love

Why writers read: “A good book is an event in my life.” – Stendhal

How Old Were They? Nils Bohlin

Nils Bohlin was 38 when he designed the harness seat belt in 1958. He was working for Volvo when he came up with the seat belt model that has saved millions of lives. Lap belts had been around for nearly a century, but his three-point system (shoulder, chest, and lap) was a major improvement. After some initial resistance from drivers who resented being told what to do, even for their own good, Bohlin’s seat belt became standard equipment around the world. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Harness belt more effective than lap belt at preventing injuries and saving lives

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

How Old Were They? Judy Garland

Judy Garland was 16 when she was cast as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, 17 when the movie was released in 1939. Born Frances Ethel Gumm into a vaudeville family, she began performing at age two with her older sisters. At 12, she signed with MGM, where she made 27 of her 34 films. Her long career earned Garland an Academy Award, two Grammys, and a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her personal life was a struggle however, and she died of an accidental overdose at 47. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

The iconic singer-actress was successful on screen but troubled in life

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

How Old Were They? Henry Dunant

Henry Dunant was 73 when he won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. Appalled at the suffering he witnessed during the Second Italian War of Independence, he published a book, A Memory of Solferino, and proposed that the nations of the world form their own relief societies to care for the wounded and train volunteers to treat them. Dunant helped to found the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, at age 35, and launch the first Geneva Convention in 1864, which has since saved the lives of millions of soldiers worldwide. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

First Nobel Peace Prize winner helped found International Red Cross

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

How Old Were They? Charles Feltman

Charles Feltman, age 30, is credited with inventing the hot dog on a bun in 1871. After a modest beginning selling sausages from a pushcart, the German-American went on to establish a large restaurant complex on Brooklyn’s Coney Island that included a beer garden and carousel, and served millions of customers annually. Nathan’s hot dog stand, which sold nickel franks on the boardwalk, was opened in 1916, 45 years later, by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker, who originally worked for Feltman. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

30-year-old Charles Feltman invented hot dog on a bun in Coney Island 45 years before Nathan’s opened

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die