There are certain touchstones of life that demand a respectful response.
Birth and death come to mind.
Then there is age and the esteem we show to one who lives the long, strong, loving life.
On Feb. 8, 1926, a quiet, yet determined force of nature was unleashed on the world when Leanna Tomlin, the 10th of 12 children of a family entered the world in Sunflower County, Mississippi.
“It has been a happy hundred years,” she once told me, and at a celebration of her birthday last Saturday, at a house in Flossmoor, one day before this Park Forest resident legally reached the age of 100, this petite ball of fervor warned everyone “I’m not done yet. I’m not going to leave soon.”
Along with a small corps of well-wishers in the house, a group of more than 20 friends and family spanning the nation from the Carolinas to California wished her well on Zoom in a 90-minute period of love, memory and more than 40 photos.
She knew them all, chatted with them, and connected with kin around the country.
Her personal history is wrapped in the patterns of a society into which she was born. We were told her grandmother was a slave and she never mentions the names of her parents.
“My father told me never to tell their names” she says and will not say more.
Names are not important one thinks. She was named Leannar but somewhere along the line dropped the last letter.
Well, OK, but for years her family nickname has been “Aunt Big Baby.”
The 12 children in the family were equally divided into six boys and six girls. Three boys became ministers and six, including the birthday girl were teachers.
During World War II, and still in her teens, she traveled alone to Chicago to live with a sister and, as she says, “to seek an education.” She went to school and in due time became a teacher in Harvey.
“I was a public servant and very proud of it,” she says. “My greatest pride was my teaching experience.”
She set a lifestyle for so many people, both children and parents, and her marriage to Irvin Tomlin produced one child, Bregiete Bullock, who lives in Schererville.
And then there is a grandson and three great-grandchildren.
A devout church goer who routinely attends the Harvest Time Worship Center in Richton Park, she has a personal philosophy which stems from what might be her personal philosophy she maintains — “to give praise to God, mind my business and leave yours alone.”
So, it was not unusual for her to quote a passage from Psalm 91 and to join in a song or two at the Saturday celebration. When a recording of the Mississippi Mass Choir “When I Rose This Morning” was played, she lent her voice to the loud joyful tempo.
She was born when Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States and has lived through the reigns of 17 others. A century on earth saw her through the Great Depression, World War II, the wars in Korea and Vietnam along with various flareups through years, 9/11 and COVID-19 to name a few.
The years leave an unforgettable impression. The first Black History Month event was held in 1926. The first public display of something called television took place in 1926. Winnie the Pooh arrived that year as did Queen Elizabeth II of England, Marilyn Monroe, Fidel Castro, Hugh Hefner and the start of the national Broadcasting Company (NBC).
The drumbeat of the years is can be deafening. Yet the English poet Robert Browning understood the honor of old age when he wrote a tribute to the art of aging.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made;
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid.”
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
