My New Friend, Mr. Doyle

I have a new friend. His name is Doyle and he is 95 years old. Yes, that's right, 95 (He looks AWESOME for 95 by the way, and he is so incredibly cheerful too!). I met him taking Maesie for a walk. (She is the baby girl I watch two days a week. She is 4 months and absolutely perfect, almost as perfect as my nephew, almost...) So Maesie and I are walking around the block 2 weeks ago and we encounter an old man in an electric wheelchair. To make a long story short, I stopped, he stopped and we ended up walking together to the corner lemonade stand. We had a good talk that day. He told me about his wife who just passed away in June. They were married for 73 years! I told him about T, how he was a sailor and how he just came back to Afghanistan. He then told me about his grandson who just came back from a year long tour in Iraq. We had a good chit chat that day and I decided we are going to walk more often.

Today, I stopped by to say hello while I was walking with Maesie. Doyle's face lit up when he saw me. He was so excited I came to visit and his excitement made my day. We couldn't go on a walk because his caretaker had not arrived yet. But we had a good sit and a short chat about school and marriage. He told me he married his wife when he was my age (19) and she was 16. They had some rough moments, but were fortunate to make it all on their own. He told me she was beautiful, and they had the best times together.

I am so very excited to learn more about him. He is the sweetest man and being born in 1915, he has truly seen history happen. Just imagine. I am happy I have made a old and wise friend and I look forward to our visits.