BETWEEN THE LINES -- Byron de Arakal

This column will cost you $25, so let’s take care of business up

front, shall we? Get out your checkbook and grab a pen. Now, make the

check payable to the Costa Mesa Senior Center for $25 (more if you can

spare it). Hold on, we’re almost done. Drop the check in an envelope and

address it to Costa Mesa Senior Center, 695 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa, CA

92627. OK, now fling a stamp on that envelope and hold on to it for a

moment while you read on.

On Friday, while occupying a chair at the Costa Mesa Senior Center’s

luncheon honoring a dozen of its most treasured volunteers, my mind

wandered a bit. But not necessarily off the topic.

I thought of my grandmother, Velma Potter, who will be marking her

93rd year on the planet this month. Velma is a second generation

Californian. She hails, on her mother’s side, from the fabled Vital Reche

family, a rugged and spirited band of frontiersmen who trundled in

covered wagons across the West from Pennsylvania and gave birth to the

northern San Diego County community of Fallbrook in 1869. And while her

aging frame has long since failed her, Velma’s keen memory of my family’s

frontier heritage remains a refreshing spring of wisdom and pride for me.

My mind raced north to Seattle too. There, in a nursing home, rests

Catherine Lee in the twilight of her life. Mrs. Lee, as she is a legend

known by thousands of high school students who reaped the priceless

benefit of her teaching, has long since given up her keen and nimble mind

to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. But back in 1977, when she was a

witty and demanding instructor of advanced composition and British

literature at El Modena High School in Orange, she drilled, encouraged

and praised a young lad to “pursue the noble art of writing.” He did. And

to Mrs. Lee he owes much, including uncompromising respect.

I thought, as well, of my father-in-law, Edmund Jachacz, the son of

Polish immigrants. Now in his late 70s, Ed is to me an icon of the

“greatest generation.” Here’s a guy who left his family and his home in

the later stages of World War II. In the prime of his youth, he shipped

off to a small island called Tinian, where he flew aboard the mighty B-29

“Superforts,” the heavy bombers that lowered the curtain on the Japanese

in the Pacific Theater.

Then my thoughts settled upon my own parents, themselves senior

citizens but still extraordinarily active in public education, criminal

justice and the theater. Both of my folks devoted themselves to the

education and character development of their own children and of

thousands more during their careers in public education. In so doing,

they sacrificed much but prepared many.

Do I wander? Hardly. These senior citizens in my life are no different

than the 500 senior citizens who each day look forward to their visits to

the Costa Mesa Senior Center. These are folks who fought wars and took

bullets for our freedom. They crawled through the indignity of the Great

Depression, scratched out a living, raised a family.

Yet as time has hurtled forward in their lives, they have often found

themselves abandoned, without friends or companionship. Our toss-away

culture is more content to warehouse them instead of engage them. We’re

just too busy swilling our lattes and managing our portfolios.

All of which is why the Costa Mesa Senior Center is a beacon in our

community. Here these great folks who paved the road before us find

friendship and conversation, education and entertainment. They can find a

hot meal or a ride to the doctor’s office. They learn how to operate

computers and manage their finances. They organize and take trips

together. They’re just trying to squeeze every last ounce of life that

they can. Now if we were to spend a moment noodling with some

appreciation on what these things would mean to us in the sunset of our

lives (and it’s coming), it is a wonder why each year the Costa Mesa

Senior Center has to crawl through the trenches and over barbed wire to

fund its operations. Nevertheless, it does.

Aviva Goelman, the center’s executive director, runs herself nearly

ragged chasing down grants and corporate contributions. Goelman launched

the senior center’s capital campaign in November, announcing an ambitious

target of $100,000. As you read this, $65,000 has come in with just a

month left in the campaign. That’s not good enough in my book.

So as I scanned the weathered but knowing faces of those seniors

attending the volunteers luncheon Friday -- the folks who find sanctuary

and meaning at the Costa Mesa Senior Center -- I guessed at what

contributions they made to our country and our community throughout their

lives. “We owe these folks,” I remember thinking.

So do you. Now, go mail that envelope.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a writer and communications consultant. He lives

in Costa Mesa. His column runs Wednesdays. Readers may reach him with

news tips and comments via e-mail at [email protected].