Lizzie Bolden was beyond old. She was older than the nursing home she lived in, older than the trees in the front yard, older than the street it was built on. She was older than any other living human being on the planet.

And Lizzie could absolutely not figure out where all the time went.

It felt like just the other day she was helping her momma and poppa, both freed slaves, with the field work. Then it was just this morning that she and her Lewis were getting married, and her first son, Ezell, following minutes after. At lunch, she blinked, and the world was at war, blinked again and everyone was poor, another blink and an even bigger war was raging. By the time the sun was starting to set, Lizzie had more grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren than she could count.

She’d told a reporter this once, after she’d been declared the world’s oldest person, and he had called it life’s Doppler Effect. Said that it was on account of her moving toward tomorrow, pressing up against the future.

But Lizzie knew the truth.

There was just too many amazing things to remember them all.

Memphis Note
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bolden was born in 1890 in Somerville, TN. She passed on in 2005 at the ripe old age of 116 here in Memphis. When she died, she was the oldest person in the world. Lizzie’d spent the past century in and around Memphis, watching the world change from the South of the Reconstruction era to the modern one we live in now. The list of things Lizzie Bolden lived through are far too numerous for me to mention.