[nfbmi-talk] Off Topic - Can You Imagine Being This?

[Terry D. Eagle]

I just had to share this.  And just think, I am only half the way there.
Technology will likely have me seeing clearly by then too!

   

Subject: Inkster woman listed as world's oldest person

 

  

The front door flew open as a reporter approached a brick ranch house in
Inkster and a voice called out, "C'mon in - I've got Time magazine on the
phone."

The speaker stood Thursday night over a placid figure dressed in a pale pink
nightgown named Jeralean Talley, a bright-eyed elderly woman in spectacles
who - despite her profound hearing loss - was fully aware, relatives said,
that she'd just been declared by gerontology experts to be the oldest person
in the world.

"It's truly incredible because Ms. Talley is very aware of what's going on.
Her mental state is very sharp," said Michael Kinloch, 56, of Canton, a GM
engineer and longtime family friend of Talley's through their church.

"It's unfortunate that other people passed away, but this has certainly
elevated her. She's feeling no pain. She just can't get around like she used
to," Kinloch said, who sat on a couch as he gestured to the walker that
stood before Talley's easy chair.

Talley, who will turn 116 on May 23, climbed to the top spot after Gertrude
Weaver, the world's oldest person for just five days, died Monday in
Arkansas. She was 116.

 DFP 0407_DFP_oldest_woman (2).jpg
<http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/41d7105c73cd26910cdcd762fa84b9e306bb6a80/c=
0-320-3840-5440&r=183&c=0-0-180-238/local/-/media/Lansing/2015/04/07/B931688
9417Z.1_20150407074231_000_G0EAECJKE.1-0.jpg> 

A photo of Talley from her younger days hangs in her living room. She
credits God for her longevity. 

 (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell)

Weaver, who was born July 4, 1898, to sharecroppers near the Texas border,
was also the oldest American. She died at 10:12 a.m. at the Silver Oaks
Health and Rehabilitation in Camden, a spokeswoman told KTHV-TV in Little
Rock.

She was crowned the oldest just Wednesday after the death of Misao Okawa in
Japan. She was 117.

At Talley's Inkster home Monday, a religious tapestry hung on the wall and
around the room were others signs of her devotion to God. Asked for the key
to her longevity, she gave the answer she has given before:

"It's coming from above. That's the best advice I can give you. It's not in
my hands or your hands," she said, pointing vigorously skyward with both
index fingers.

Talley, born in 1899 in Georgia according to U.S. Census records, came to
Michigan in 1935 and said, "I've been here ever since then."

Her advice to the world on the occasion of her having attained a new level
of celebrity was a rephrasing of Christianity's Golden Rule: "I ain't got
nothing more but to treat the other fellow like you want to be treated. You
don't tell a lie on me so I won't tell a lie on you."

Talley is widely known among experts who chart those who monitor the members
of a rare worldwide club - the one in 5 million humans to live at least 110
years. She bowled until she was 104 and still mowed her lawn until a few
years ago, according to previous Free Press reports. Equally amazing, Talley
lived alone until seven years ago, when she was joined in the small home
under the flight path of Detroit Metro Airport jets by her daughter, Thelma
Holloway, 77, and Holloway's daughter, 26, who has added an ever-smiling
spark to the supra-centenarian's life - little Armmell, now 2 years old and
a frequent visitor to his great-great grandmother's lap.

On Thursday night, Armmell showed his elder his child-sized computer.

"He's fifth-generation," Thelma Holloway said, as the two bent over the toy
together.

Kinloch said he's looking forward to taking Talley, despite her advanced
age, on their annual fishing trip.

"We go to a trout pond in Dexter. She really likes that," he said.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner at freepress.com. USA TODAY contributed.