Help from beyond

In 1924, an elderly woman in Kent named Charlotte Weaver was interviewed about a house that had, at that time, been recently moved from its original location to its new home on another street. The local newspaper at the time chronicled her interview. Newspapers have archives, called "morgues", where old news goes, not to die, but to be stored, and then people can then conduct research on decades old news stories. A few months ago when the effort to save an old historic house in Kent began, I suspected from years of seeing it sitting there where it was moved so long ago that it probably dated from sometime in the 1850s or so. My suspicions began to be confirmed when an article appeared in the local newspaper about how this house might indeed be a historic residence. The writer had gone back into newspaper archives and unearthed the 1924 interview with Charlotte Weaver, who said that she remembered the original occupant of the house as a man named George Wells, and it was sometime in the 1850s. As it turns out, the writer revealed to me that he was not looking for the interview with Mrs. Weaver, but rather, was searching for something else entirely unrelated, but somehow, this interview was found and was written about in the article about the house and its history. The writer, my friend and the editor of the local newspaper, Roger, said that it was almost as if Mrs. Weaver was trying to help us to identify the house from the vantage point of 88 years in the past. That's quite astonishing to think that she was doing her level best to help us to date this house, and that was before I located the 1858 deed that confirmed the house's construction date. So I say to Charlotte Weaver, thank you for helping us. I am absolutely convinced that she meant to reach out to us through the ages to point the way for us to date the house and confirm its first owner. If that isn't completely cool, well, I don't know what is.

Yesterday my mom and I saw a lovely movie called "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", about a bunch of older Brits who emigrate to India to what was supposed to be a luxury hotel for older people, but turns out to be a bit of a crumbling and faded resort in Jaipur, amidst squalor and poverty. Some of the older folks adapt quite well and discover the beauty and color despite the squalor, but some folks just don't handle it well, particularly one woman who simply refuses to deal with life in India, period. She sequesters herself in her room and freaks out at the possibility that the food and water might be contaminated, while her husband rejoices in the beauty of the life there and exults in everything that India has to offer. We also learn about arranged marriages, the caste system and more as we meet both Indian and British characters who are learning how to adapt to cultural changes in their lives. It's a perfectly charming movie about how life is too short not to embrace it fully and not hold yourself back. Now, I do not know if I could cope with moving someplace with a totally different culture and try to adapt and fit in, but the lessons to be learned are that life can be a real adventure if you open yourself to everything that the world has to offer. No matter how young - or old - you are, life is out there just waiting for us to explore and enjoy it, even if it means going someplace totally unfamiliar and out of your comfort zone. It's a delightful movie and I recommend seeing it.