One Hundred Years of Stories

Here you can share your thoughts about the centenarians you've heard on One Hundred Years of Stories. Perhaps you'd like to tell about a centenarian you know. Maybe you've got a few ideas about reaching one hundred years old yourself. What scares you about getting older? What excites you? What do you imagine being one hundred will be like, say, thirty years from now? What questions do you have for centenarians in the months to come?

I would like to hear them compare & contrast the decades for us, what were their thoughts of how they remembered each decade, and the significant mile markers along the way that standout in their minds and why. What has changed for the better, for the worse? What are their words of wisdom they would like to share with us and make an impression on us about? How much change have they really seen, and what has pretty much stayed the same? What is their hope for our future?

This might be a very interesting series. Thanks NPR.

My great aunt was born on July 4, 1987. She lives alone in California, grows her own vegetables and manages to send birthday cards on time to everyone in her extended family. I think she would prove to be a wonderful interviewee for this program, if you need any more. She describes herself as a "firecracker" - alluding to her birthdate, collects vintage clocks and jokes and loves Chinese food. She lived in San Francisco for most of her life - just down from the Golden Gate Park, and held many public service jobs when young - long before equal rights for women. She has wonderful stories of growing up such as deciding on her own to drive the family's new car - right into someone's porch.

I am sending her a copy of the synopses of your earlier interviews and plan to order the tapes for her.

Thanks for listening.

I am writing to you because I Heard your facsinating stories of centenarians on NPR. I would like to tell you about my own personnel centenarian who is near and dear to my heart. It is my grandmother, Lucia Servadio-Bedarida or La Nonna (as I refer to her). She is 100 years old and she just celebrated her birthday in Ancona, Italy where she was born. I would like to give you a quick note of why she is such a special person, or you can read a little about her from an article recently written on the following webpage:

http://jta.virtualjerusalem.com/index.exe?0007237

She was born at the turn of the century into a modest Italian family. After helping her mother who was a Red Cross volunteer in WWI she decided she wanted to be a Doctor. Progressive for her time she went on to graduate from medical school from the University of Rome in 1922. She met my Grandfather who was on faculty at the University of Turin. They lived well in Northern Italy until 1939 when Racial Laws were passed and They lost ther Jobs. They saved ther immediate family (three daughters) by fleeing to Tangier, Morrocco. My grandmother has many stories of this time in her life including the deportation of her parents and grandmother by Nazis. This was recorded on videotape by the Speilberg foundation.

Although my granfather had a broken heart because of his professional losses and eventually passed away in 1965, Lucia thrived in her new enviornment. She practiced general medicine but specialized in obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics. She delivered hundreds of children including my brother Daniel in 1963. She was very popular among the local Arabs who required a woman to deliver their children out of modesty. To this day she frequently meets people that she delivered. She also served in the dept. of health for the Morroccan government.

Lucia practiced medicine until she was 85 years old. I think she stopped more because she feared for her safety more than the inability to work. She moved to the United States to join her children. She currently resides in Cornwall on the Hudson, NY with her daughter Paola. She Travels all over the world on an annual basis to visit her friends of which she has hundreds. She walks one mile every day and example of her vitality includes Hang Gliding in the Italian Alps on her 97th Birthday. I can't imagine a more interesting person than my Nonna and I'm sure your listeners might enjoy her story as well.

Victor Klausner Henderson, Nevada

I did not see this series in the tapes and transcripts section. Are tapes of the series available? It was wonderful and heartwarming. It made me want to live to be 100!

Just recently I heard a story on NPR about bilingual children who become language brokers for their non-English speaking parents. It was a delightful, thought-provoking story and one which relates somewhat to our past one hundred years as a nation. From the 1890s to 1920s, many non-English speaking people arrived in America with their families. Since children generally learn other languages wonderfully quickly, is it possible that we had a similar situation with regards to children and their language brokering roles during those early years when these children were learning English in school and then acting as translators for their parents? If this is the case, what are the similarities between the early and late 20th century occurrences of this same phenomenon?

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