LYNDEN, Washington -- I never caught his name -- not all of it.
He gave it to me at the end, when he had got up to leave, but his speech was soft and tentative and lacked the confidence of a younger man.
He apologized several times for the verbal stumbling. Said he was getting so old that he still knows what to say but has a hard time remembering the words. I think he worries he won't even know what to say much longer. Maybe that's why he decided to talk to me.
His first name was Jack. That much I got. He was 84 and looked older, with glassy eyes and double chins that were made up of loose skin rather than fat. He had hearing aids in both ears and they did the trick. As long as you were clear and deliberate, he understood.
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