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(* Walking about)
You don’t have to go to the Louvre, the famous museum of Paris
To see the Mona Lisa smile.
You can go to the Hargrave to Hamilton Senior Centers on the Upper West Side.
Have breakfast in the morning or lunch at noon.
Sit there in cool, clean rooms.
Take an exercise class.
Or flower arranging.
Or learn to work on computers.
You will see a short while later a woman of wisdom rolling her grocery cart,
Making her way into the building,
Slightly bent, looking up,
Going to one of her activities.
She looks straight at you.
You cannot escape her line of vision.
There it is: a smile.
No one else can imitate Leonardo da Vinci’s expression better than our Ruth.
A mile smile on her face, her eyes giving you a benevolent stare.
It cheers you up.
She does not have to say “hello, ” or as Art Carney used to say “helllooooo” to bug his buddy Ralph Kramden on the Honeymooners.
You see it on her face.
And you say, “How are you, Ruth?”
She does not reply.
She does not have to.
Her answer is in her smile, in her motion, in her presence.
Last year I saw Ruth waiting at the bus stop on 72nd Street and Broadway.
She had a black weekender with her.
I stopped to ask why she was standing there.
She said, “I am going to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch a bus to go to Connecticut.”
I said to myself, “Bravo!”
Between her exercise and walking, she is keeping herself occupied and healthy.
Her presence among us gives us cheer and inspiration.
She is a role model in motion for hundreds of seniors and their relatives.
I hope to gadabout the way she does as I mature to the coming times.
I think that I can.
She has proven it to me
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