89-Year-Old Broke Hip Inline Skating Five Years Ago...Painted Roof To Honor Love

roadskater's picture
Submitted by roadskater on Wed May 7 2008 2:44am
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Here's a brief article about a man who painted the tiles of his roof as a sign to heaven for his deceased wife caught my eye for its comment on the emotional aspects of inline skating, and because of this age, around 84, when he broke a hip skating!

It took Mr Hall, 89, three months to paint the roof of Berta's corner. Mr Hall said he was relieved it was finished because he broke his hip roller-blading five years ago.

"Roller-blading was a way to forget the loneliness of life," Mr Hall said.

To see a photo of this octoskater and of the tile roof he painted to honor his love, check out...

No word on whether he plans to get out skating again. It seems about as safe as painting a ceramic tile roof! After 56 years together I'm sure it took many miles to ease missing his wife even a little. Skateylove, Mr. Hall.

Location

Sans Souci, New South Wales
Australia
33° 59' 26.5128" S, 151° 7' 59.394" E
See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest
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Comments

eebee's picture

Great story!

Submitted by eebee on Wed May 7 2008 2:36pm.
That's a cool story. Also fitting that he lives in a place called 'Sans Souci'! He looks very healthy in that photo.
roadskater's picture

No Worries!

Submitted by roadskater on Wed May 7 2008 4:02pm.
So I looked up Sans Souci. It turns out that people who know French (and some others) know it means "without worry" and is often used to name a house or boat (especially among the retired or vacationing), sometimes a restaurant. If I ever knew it I had forgotten it...what was the Steve Wright quotation about deja vu et amnesia?

I think I've forgotten this before.


or some such. With 2 years of French in high school, 2 years of German in undergrad, and a year or two of Spanish after that, but no immersion, it hasn't stuck as well as a post-it on a rock wall.

Regarding the "location block," I am sure the fellow doesn't live on that corner with those cars turning left through the light, but I did not know his address. Still you can see how many houses have the terra cotta roofing tiles. It'd be fun to see his roof on the web. I wonder if he spelled anything the way the Concord Mills Mall has?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=concord+mills,+concord+...

After the recent crash and ensuing upgrades, things are still settling in, and some features are different. I'm still working on gettting the hybrid sat-image/maps to zoom to a level that is useful without using + or - keys to zoom in or out. (The maps are draggable and zoomable, but the controls which would suggest this are not visible as of this writing.)

Thanks for commenting. A sweet story methinks.

 

eebee's picture

'What's another word for Thesaurus?' & other Steven Wright-isms

Submitted by eebee on Fri May 9 2008 11:30am.

Here are some more dead-pan witticisms from Steven Wright for your pleasure:

- All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.

- Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

- Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.

- What happens if you get half scared to death twice?  

- If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

- Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

They're best when you can hear his voice in your head as you read them (a cross between Eeyore and H2G2's Marvin).

On the above-linked webpage he is given credit for one of Blake's favorite sayings:

- The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

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