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What's not to love about these no-nonsense, plain-spoken New Englanders with their broad Maine accents? Joan Gaudet, the mother of the filmmaker, is happy to wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning to greet an inbound plane even as she notes that her deteriorating health is making it harder and harder for her to do as much as she would like. Bill Knight is a lonely 87-year-old widower (and veteran) whose home has descended into squalor, complete with a small army of cats that is literally eating him out of house and home. Even when he decides to round them up and send them off to the Humane Society there are too many for him to catch.
Jerry Mundy, another widower and veteran haunted by the loss of his young son many years ago, is happy to greet arriving troops but can't bear to watch them head out. A self-proclaimed Independent who questions the motivations behind the wars (and feels a tad guilty about it), he nonetheless wants to serve his country and has found in this task an incredible amount of joy, not to mention humor. How funny it is, he says, when he watches the sternest of sergeants take a cell phone, dial a number, and then sweetly say, 'Hi, Mom.'
'It puts a little meaning back into my life,' Bill says in the midst of a heartbreaking soliloquy about how he really has nothing left to live for and is more than ready to die (he's been diagnosed with prostate cancer). Helping other people, he notes, is now the only thing that matters to him. Let the tears flow.
This is rich material that plucks every heartstring but never in a manipulative or maudlin way. These three old folks, very much a part of Tom Brokaw's 'greatest generation,' are humbling reminders of how much the elderly among us have done and how vital they are to holding communities together. Watch them, and ponder your own future.
The way involves a walker.
