Tolley Fletcher, 104, eased into his recliner, his television unsurprisingly set on country music, in the den in the house he built in 1979 offering a sense of comfort and serenity.
His eyes that have borne witness to more than a century of living remain alert, his voice strong, his gentleness genuine.
“Overall, a good life,” said Fletcher, who four years ago lost his wife, Lorna. “I am well satisfied.”
Fletcher’s story is one with the humblest of beginnings, a farm boy who did not live in a house with electricity or running water until he was 15 years old. But from those roots, his life blossomed, taking him back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean on several occasions and also to North Africa, where he was able to spend time in Casablanca, which he said was overrated, to Normandy as a participant in the D-Day invasion…