323 Years Old? You Don't Look a Day Over 90

I was talking with a woman in one of the nursing homes I contract to. She told me she used to live downtown in the West End, at Davie and Pendrell.

"Did you now?" I said.

"Yes," she told me. "I lived there for 323 years."

I don't know about you , but I think 323 years is a long time to live in one apartment. "Wow, " I responded, "You must have seen a lot of changes in that time."

This was actually the end of the conversation. Earlier, she told me she was paying $1900.00 dollars a day to stay in the home. I tried to tell her that it was much less than that, that it is about $!300 for the month.

"No," she had insisted, "It is nineteen hundred a day, my son told me that"."

"Mrs. S. would you like me to go find out exactly? We could go to the business offfice."

"No, "she shook her head. "I know what it is."

"Nobody pays that much, " I said.

"I do, " she told me emphatically.

We were at a standstill. I looked at her a minute, and thought to myself, why am I arguing. That is not the point. So then I said, "That's a lot of money to be paying, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said, but my son helps me out, so it's okay."

"Your son is very good to you, isn't he?"

She smiled with pride. "He is,"she said.

It was a good review lesson for me.

So who cares--323 years in the West End? She must have seen a lot of interesting things during those years.