Dear Family and Friends

Cicero once said the "Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all others." That's the way I feel as I have time now to explore my world here in Southern California.

Yesterday with 21 of my classmates I visited with Kitty, our Activities Director, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. It symbolizes for me so much:

I remember Polio in the l940's . Living in Everett Washington, all meetings were cancelled including Sunday Church. Carol took our four children to Baby Island, by Camano in Puget Sound. I buried two people in graveside Services with only the family present in one week. I still can smell the steaming towels that came from the polio ward at St Mary's Hospital where I visited young Paul Eklund and others going through the Sister Kinney method of treatment. It was a time like the Flu plague of my childhood that took my father in 4 days.

Jonas Salk, from a poor immigrant family coming to America from eastern Europe ,found the vaccine to conquer Polio. He began his career by seeking a vaccine for the Flu. Truly he was a great soul who shared his patents for free with the whole world. Polio is conquered today except that at least two of my older friends are now having back trouble attributed to that period.

Money left over from "The March of Dimes" which helped conquer Polio made this amazing structure possible. Salk, asked Louis Kahn, an architect "to build a facility worthy of a visit from Picasso" and he did. The inscription says:

Hope lies in dreams, Imagination

And in the courage of those who dare

to make dreams into reality"

Now this nearly 40 year old "possolonic' pink concrete, steel and glass

structure features "The Stream of Life". Your eyes focus on a flowing stream of water, then lift to the trees of the seashore, ocean waves and finally the captivating blue sky that became hidden by the fog rolling in before we left. The symbolism has much to say to imaginative people. Concerts are held in this spacious place in the summer.

The best trained minds in the world are busy here with three Nobel

Scientists seeking answers to all our ills. Lectures on Cancer, Altszeimer's, Strokes, etc are held weekly. So it is that Jonas Salk continues to bless mankind.

As you can see Old age to me is not a punishment but a privilege; not a defeat but a victory. Take care of your bodies and seek a balance in working, loving, playing and worshiping.

You are daily in my visualizing thoughts of you and your life laboratory, as you invest yourselves.

"THANKS FOR SCROLLING"

"Caleb" Elroy S.