WINNING WORDS
Hosting a TV show, I’ve interviewed my share of beauty contest winners; I once even had Miss America on my show. But when a friend asked if I would judge a beauty contest at a nursing home, I thought, Good heavens! What on earth would be the criteria for judging?
When I arrived at Wood Dale nursing home I saw a list of the eight contestants and their ages, from 85 to 92. This isn’t going to be easy, I thought.
One woman wore a flowing blue satin dress. Others had done up their hair in elaborate coifs, and some had spots of color on their cheeks. They walked past the judges, some more gracefully than others, happily waving at the audience. When the contestants reached the emcee, he asked each one of them in turn, “What was the most important day of your life?”
“The day I got married,” one woman declared. “When my son was born,” said another. “I just celebrated my fiftieth wedding anniversary,” said a third. How will I ever be able to choose? I wondered. Then 88-year-old Sybil sashayed up to the microphone. And when I heard her answer to the question, I knew we had a winner.
“Why, today
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