Recessional, James A. Michener, Fawcett Crest

Not all old people could go to the Palm, a retirement home in Tampa, Florida. Those who had saved up for the retirement nest were the lucky ones for it was a special home for the old. And it became even better after Dr. Andy Zorn joined as its director. Recessional is the story of the retirement home with its different occupants. It is the story of the old people's joys and sorrows and their hopes and disappointments. It is the story of how the protagonist Dr. Zorn makes the home lovable for everyone; the quiet and subdued ones, the boisterous and noisy ones. It is also a home for the octogenarians who get together to build a wooden airplane. It is the story of old ladies who were glad that a whole battalion of rowdy grandchildren visiting them left at the end of the day. Dr. Zorn was determined to make the old home a success story as he started his work with a team of efficient staff, especially Krenek, the manager who was the backbone of the place and Norse Varney, the nurse who worked miracles with the occupants.
The retirement home had the Duggans, husband and wife married for sixty-one years. Among the well-to-do couples at the Palms, they were unquestionably the wealthiest, the best dancers, the freest with their money and the best hosts. Having lived in Wisconsin all their lives they had decided to leave the cold winters and move to Florida, the sun-shine state. They were very happy at Palms. When Zorn wanted information about a kind of palm tree he had seen at the Palms he was taken to Mrs. Oliphant, the widow who occupied one of the most inexpensive rooms. However, Krenek explained that she was the "do gooder" among them because she had a fantastic moral conscience. Her role in life has been to make things better than they are. And she knew all about the eleven kinds of palms that Florida boasted of. Like Mrs. Oliphant each occupant of the Palms had a special trait. The Mallories, an affluent couple had the habit of going off to a new place for a few days when friends informed them of a more promising home. But they always returned saying , " Nothing beats the Palms". Dr Zorn had a cure for them. He made it a rule that they would have to pay in advance for two full years and that they would not get back their wonderful rooms with view of the ocean if they came back. The Mallories, called the " Yo-Yo Mallories" stopped their annual flights!
The Palms had an incredible intellectual bridge. Senator Raborn was in his eighties; two of them, Ambassador St. Pres and President Armiatge were in their late seventies and one, the editor Jimenez had just turned seventy. They were men who (still called according to their titles though all were retired) met every week and spanned out their philosophies. Ambassador St. Pres once said that he found his real identity when he met a Spanish ambassador and was impressed by the man's medals. Ever since he met the man he had been relentless in his drive for recognition. So he summarized that people can flourish when they find inspiration. He had also observed that as we grow older the intensity for such emotion is lost because people seem to become absorbed with the aging process. Muley Dugan another member of the group said,
"The two sorriest days of a man in this joint is when his wife dies and the day he has to give up his driving license."
One day Mrs. Oliphant joined the intellectual group. Talking about her childhood as an orphan and how her aunt brought her up summed up her wisdom about parenting saying,
"The job of parents is not to browbeat the child into kind of adult they would prefer, but to give the rebellious one all the love in the world and the encouragement to become the kind of productive human being the child aspires to become."
Dr. Zorn heard of an exceptional good therapist in Alabama. He decided to bring him to the Palms. He drove out to meet the Bedford Yancey and his wife Ellen. The wife was also known as an excellent nurse. He offered them a highly paid job at the retirement home and came back with the couple. Yancey could perform magic with disabled old people and soon the newspapers were hot with the news of the new therapist at the Palms. He could even convince wheelchair bound people to get up and walk on their own. He drew out people out of depression until they were up in the dining hall offering to play games of bridge long after dinner. After the arrival of Yancey Dr. Zorn got a call from Oliver Cawthorn, father of the young woman he had pulled out of a car crash a month earlier. Betsy, the young woman had lost both legs in the accident. Cawthorn wanted to put Betsy in the Palms for the young woman was sure that Dr. Zorn could help her since he had saved her life. Deciding that Yancey could help Betsy Dr. Zorn took her into the retirement home.
On the first day of their meeting Yancey assured Betsy that she had no need for the wheelchair because she would soon be having her metal leg with the fine knees she still had. On the second day Betsy had joined the other occupants for dinner and was looking forward to walking around the whole Palms. Every morning when Yancey met Betsy he had some life saving sermons ready to boost her up and then he would commence on his therapies. Yancey's wife helped her husband work the miracles on his patients. One day Betsy found herself surrounded by people with one leg, one hand and even a woman who, like her had lost both her legs. They people narrated to Betsy of the amazing activities they were engaged in. One was playing tennis, the other were dancing in competitions, fishing, playing golf. Betsy learned that she had to believe in herself to live an active life without her two legs and thus Betsy was saved from wasting away her life. Very soon Betsy was playing tennis on her new artificial legs!
The Palms was a blessed place for patients of devastating old age disease like Alzheimer. They provided monitored care and loving attention till the end. The Palms had stories of love and devotion. Two old gentlemen Muley and Pidcock had their wives with advanced Alzheimer's disease living at the Palms. Every evening they had their wives dressed and brought them to dinner treating them like queens. The wives did not even recognize their husbands and yet days after days the two gentlemen continued to attend their wives with love and devotion.
However, all was not beautiful at the retirement home. Some occupants had notorious relatives who went to the court stating that the old people were spending the family money on retirement homes when they could be looked after at home. Dr. Zorn had to chase after lawyers to have the settlements in the old people's favour, to keep them with dignity and pride in the twilight years of their life. And there were sad days when an old person died. Dr. Zorn did his best to put the life story of the deceased on the newspaper so that the public would be enlightened of a life that has been lived with dignity on his own.
The writer of Recessional does not deviate from real life. And we see that everything is not perfect at the Palms. There was a savannah on the huge land belonging to the Palms. And in the savannah lived a vicious rattle snake. One day Richard St. Pres walked into the grassy land and he was bitten by the rattle snake. He died there, under the vast sky, in a field of tall grass and weeds! The man had come to live in the Palms to live the secured, safe life and yet how fate had designed otherwise! The irony of fate did not escape the realities of life and death!
Recessional is like a box of assorted chocolates and holds the story of so many different lives! The reader is astounded at how diverse human lives can be. In the midst of it all came romance too. Betsy and Dr. Zorn found themselves in love with each other. To the joys of the whole retirement home they tied the knot with the heartiest blessings of all. Both, Betsy and Dr. Zorn vowed to make the Palms yet more special for all those who come to them for the last years of their life. They wanted to bring smiles to the people who reached out to others for companionship and peace. The Palms continued to flourish, its name spreading wider and wider! Indeed Recessional is a saga that seems to set the reader on a breath taking path full of real life drama.

Tulip Chowdhury is a poet and writes fiction.