A Life Well Lived

Spotlight On
by Clark Westfield
March 2012

At one point in time we have met and interacted with someone special, someone who made an impression on us that lasted a lifetime. And as lifetimes go, the person you’re going to read about on this page has had a doozy. We should all be so lucky. Her name is Melva Radcliffe and although she is no relation to “Harry Potter’s” Daniel Radcliffe, she is something of a wizard in her own right. Recently, an assortment of family members, close friends and dignitaries like Wall Mayor Jeffrey Foster and State Assemblyman David Rible gathered to celebrate her life, a life that has lasted well over a century. In her own words she will tell you, “I am a 111-year-old tough cookie.” She’s all that and a bag of chips my friends.

To give you an idea how sharp she is, the details of the party were all done to her specifications. She picked the food, the entertainment, even the flavor of the cake. She also determined the seating arrangements. “I think I must know 10,000 people,” she said with a smile. “And I remember every one of them.” Amazed? You should be. I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday and I have a hard time getting my own kids’ names straight. And I’m half her age! What is her secret? What enables a person to remain vital and retain her faculties at such an advanced age? For starters people, she was a teacher. In her estimation she has taught over 3000 students and still hears from many of them. “They keep in touch from all over,” she said. For my part I can think of one or two teachers I would keep in touch with if I had any idea where they were. And they probably wouldn’t want to talk to me. Ms. Radcliffe remembers her first day of kindergarten and three girls whose names she can recall as well as what they were wearing! Growing up in Paterson and attending Paterson Normal School, she claims to remember every teacher and their mannerisms. This is mind-boggling to me because I work under the opposite theory that I need to purge the names of my elementary school nuns out of my head for fear the nightmares will return. Let’s face it, Melva Radcliffe is one-in-a-million. She remembers because she cares – about people, about herself and about her profession. Her teaching career spanned four decades and she put her heart and soul into every one. With all the talk lately of teacher reform and merit-based tenure, this woman stands apart from the pack of underachievers and wannabees. She is the real deal. Her mind is as sharp as ever and her total recall of events of the distant past are both vivid and inspirational.

Even with her longevity and pride in her work, she has not had the easiest life. A lifelong New Jersey resident, she has lived the past five years at the Brandywine Senior Living Center in Wall. Soon after moving in, she broke her hip, and not long after that, she broke the other one. Her hearing and vision are fading too but her laughter can fill a room. Impressed? You bet. If I make it to that age I’ll probably be the guy yelling for kids to get off the lawn. She had always wanted to see the world but with earning a paltry teacher’s salary of $600 per year, travel was not in the cards until a friend of hers died and left her $25,000. Forty countries and some forty plus islands later, she was ready for another chapter in her life. And so at the tender age of 69 she married her teenage sweetheart. I’m telling ya, this should be a movie on the Hallmark Network. And it gets better. When her husband died, she married his brother. Seriously true.

I really don’t know if there is a point to this piece, but every once in awhile you have to stop and think about what’s important in this life. Most often it comes down to people –  our families, our friends, our teachers and our students. They drift in and out of our lives and leave lasting images that can never be burned away. This woman has seen New Jersey go through many changes, and if you were ever fortunate enough to engage her in a conversation, she would gladly tell you about every one and how they affected the people in her state. And no doubt she would be laughing all the time. Here’s to you Melva Radcliffe. Yours is a life well lived.

More to come…CW