Items related to His Oldest Friend: The Story of an Unlikely Bond
"A poignant tribute to two friends who, despite the gulf of 73 years, manage to ground each other in their all-too-uncertain worlds."--The New York Times
They met under the most inauspicious circumstances. He was a teenage volunteer at a nursing home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She was a wheelchair-bound resident in her nineties. He was a poor Hispanic, living in a rented room in the barrio, separated from his family. Her life, at least before arthritis hobbled her, was comfortable, with regular visits from her daughters and grandchildren. But when Margaret Oliver's daughter hired Elvis Checo to look in on her mother a few afternoons each week, nobody anticipated that this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
In His Oldest Friend, Sonny Kleinfield takes us inside the lives of these two unlikely close friends to explore the world of the very young and the very old. Too often we tend to submerge individuals in the group identity of "youth" and "the elderly," but Checo and Oliver defy the stereotypes, offering each other that rarest of gifts: recognition and affirmation as a unique human being.
They met under the most inauspicious circumstances. He was a teenage volunteer at a nursing home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She was a wheelchair-bound resident in her nineties. He was a poor Hispanic, living in a rented room in the barrio, separated from his family. Her life, at least before arthritis hobbled her, was comfortable, with regular visits from her daughters and grandchildren. But when Margaret Oliver's daughter hired Elvis Checo to look in on her mother a few afternoons each week, nobody anticipated that this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
In His Oldest Friend, Sonny Kleinfield takes us inside the lives of these two unlikely close friends to explore the world of the very young and the very old. Too often we tend to submerge individuals in the group identity of "youth" and "the elderly," but Checo and Oliver defy the stereotypes, offering each other that rarest of gifts: recognition and affirmation as a unique human being.
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About the Author:
Sonny Kleinfield is a reporter for The New York Times and the author of seven previous books. He has contributed articles to The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Esquire, and Rolling Stone, and he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal before joining the Times. He shared in a Pulitzer Prize for a Times series on race in America and has received a number of journalism awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Meyer Berger Award, an American Society of Newspaper Editors Award, and the Gerald Loeb Award. A native of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, he is a graduate of New York University and lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.
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Every now and then I say, 'Why am I here?'" Ms. Oliver was saying to Elvis. "My answer is this is the way of life and nature made it this way. So you deal with it as much as possible by distracting yourself."
Elvis piped up: "Miss Oliver, think of it as you're having a little vacation from everything you've done before."
"Oh, Elvis," she said. "You're like a breath of spring."
He had to smile. Seeing her so much, he
understood her alternative universe. "Reaching old age is loneliness, depression," is how he would explain it. "You don't feel you're part of the world anymore. You're in the way. You're a pest. You have to depend on someone. That disturbs Miss Oliver. My goal is to make her still feel part of the world."
In short order, he came to think of her as his oldest friend. He actually once told her straight out: "If I had never met you, I'd probably be dead or in jail. I grew up around drug dealers all my life. I wouldn't have any choice but to stand on the corner, too."
And so, in perhaps the most important hours of his week, he lost himself in the twisting labyrinth of this nursing home, and in particular, in room 470, becoming true
intimates with a wise old woman named Margaret Oliver who never thought of herself as a savior.
Elvis piped up: "Miss Oliver, think of it as you're having a little vacation from everything you've done before."
"Oh, Elvis," she said. "You're like a breath of spring."
He had to smile. Seeing her so much, he
understood her alternative universe. "Reaching old age is loneliness, depression," is how he would explain it. "You don't feel you're part of the world anymore. You're in the way. You're a pest. You have to depend on someone. That disturbs Miss Oliver. My goal is to make her still feel part of the world."
In short order, he came to think of her as his oldest friend. He actually once told her straight out: "If I had never met you, I'd probably be dead or in jail. I grew up around drug dealers all my life. I wouldn't have any choice but to stand on the corner, too."
And so, in perhaps the most important hours of his week, he lost himself in the twisting labyrinth of this nursing home, and in particular, in room 470, becoming true
intimates with a wise old woman named Margaret Oliver who never thought of herself as a savior.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherTimes Books
- Publication date2006
- ISBN 10 0805080600
- ISBN 13 9780805080605
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages288
- Rating
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His Oldest Friend: The Story of an Unlikely Bond
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Times Books
(2006)
ISBN 10: 0805080600
ISBN 13: 9780805080605
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