Phyllis Holton

Phyllis Holton was born during the pandemic of a century ago .And then only a decade later, she and her neighbors were plunged into the Great Depression.

She was just old enough to understand what it meant to her family’s hatchery and to the farmers it served. She recalls the converted incubator she used as a bedroom. She watched her nation respond to mass deprivation.

Her family moved frequently until she convinced her father to put down roots in Antioch, Illinois. She recounts how the two of them caught a glimpse of Lindbergh flying overhead.

The Second World War came and Phyllis put her clerical skills to work for the Navy. The recent college graduate also answered the call to fill in for public-school teachers who went off to war.

The untested novice taught several grades in a single classroom. She was a veteran teacher by the time Brown V. Board of Education promised equal opportunity for all children.

Few people have a sharper first-hand understanding of the events that have brought our country to where we are today.

Along with her daughter Anne and her son David, she contracted COVID-19. All three are well on the road to recovery.

At 101 years of age, my friend Phyllis is heartened to know that safe, effective vaccines have arrived, that the second impeachment of our forty-fifth president is underway, and that both Anne and David are close by her side.