Dennis McCarthy has the day off. Here is a “Best of Dennis” column originally published on Sept. 9, 2007 with the headline “‘Never give up!’ Aging Jack told budding biographer Ethan” in the Los Angeles Daily News.
“My buddy’s name is Jack Etlin. He was born in 1918 in Pennsylvania. His father was a shoemaker and his mom stayed home. Jack doesn’t have a religion.
“His childhood was fun. Jack played football and did wrestling. His hobby was reading books. He wanted to become a newspaper editor. His teachers didn’t have any influence on who he is today. Jack doesn’t wish he was a child again because he outgrew it.
“`What has helped Jack the most in life is ‘never give up, finish what you start.’ This has helped him because he succeeded in things and had fun.’”
Nine-year-old Ethan Jackola put down his pen and got ready for bed. The first chapter in the life of his 89-year-old new buddy, Jack, was done.
He’d start on the next chapters after his fourth-grade class at Balboa Magnet School made its next visit to the Jewish Home for the Aging to see their new buddies again.
His teacher, Angela Bronson, was right. The visits were fun. For 12 years, she’d been taking her class every year to the Reseda home once a month and letting the kids pick one buddy to write a short biography about.
She does it to honor her own grandmother, who lived in a nursing home before she died. Bronson said she knew how lonely it could be for the residents when no one came to visit.
Ethan and Jack hit it off right away. Sure, Ethan had to repeat himself a lot because Jack was hard of hearing, but that was OK. Jack was always smiling, always glad to see him and answer any questions Ethan had.
He couldn’t wait to hear what Jack had to say in the next few chapters of his life.
“The only thing Jack remembers about the Civil Rights movement is Martin Luther King Jr. because where he lived there wasn’t as much struggle as in the southern…
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