Thank you for your rich, two-week series, “Local Elders Evoke Our Town” [Jan. 2 and Jan. 9, Xpress]. It was a deeply nourishing treat to read local seniors’ tender stories and astute reflections of our city. Having lost my last living grandparent this past year, it was a treasure enjoying insights from seniors of my beloved grandma’s generation.
It’s an increasingly rare opportunity to hear from older generations in media, and something from which we’d all greatly benefit. I offer heartfelt gratitude to Jim Chatham for initiating this project, the generous writers who shared their words (many of which read like the sweetest of love letters to Asheville), and the Mountain Xpress for putting these stories in the hands of the people. I’d like to hear more from these writers who are “turning their lives into literature” in the coming year.
— Alaina Drawdy
Asheville
