WOMAN OF HUMBLE MEANS ENRICHES OTHERS' LIVES.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Her world is a one-bedroom, ground floor apartment in La Crescenta, her best friend a radio, her spirit indefatigable. Talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to Rosemary Matgen is like finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk A Microsoft service that was launched in 1997 to provide online arts and entertainment guides on the Web for major cities worldwide. In 1999, Microsoft sold Sidewalk to Ticketmaster, which continued to provide guides, ticketing and other information to the MSN network. , getting a tax return check in the mail, or kicking over a rock and finding a sparkling jewel underneath. You walk away from her feeling happy and lucky. Walk away with a smile on your face, a lightness in your step, and something tugging at your heart you can't quite put your finger on because you weren't expecting it to be this way. It usually isn't when life deals people a rotten, painful hand at the end - when it shuts them inside their homes like a prisoner, leaving them alone and bitter. But that's not Rosemary's style. She's a woman of humble means who is richer than all of us because she has something ticking inside that you can't buy, inherit or steal. A spirit for life that not even the cruel hand of fate can crush, although it's been trying hard - damn hard these past years. ``I wouldn't be alive today if I didn't have a sense of humor Noun 1. sense of humor - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humour, humor, humour and roll with the punches,'' Rosemary says, turning down her best friend, the radio, so we can talk a little Friday. ``Too many people take themselves and others too seriously. They should be more like Dean Martin. He went through life like he didn't have a care in the world. ``I used to see him on the Paramount lot, and he'd always wave and smile. From my window, I'd see them all walk by on the lot, and Dean was the only one who looked like he was always having fun.'' She was a bookkeeper for KTLA KTLA KCBS TV in Los Angeles on the Paramount lot until the chronic back pain she suffered grew so bad she could no longer walk. Today, she is confined con·fine v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines v.tr. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit. to this apartment - a shut-in relying on the outside world coming to her if it wants to visit. Most of it visits her these days through the radio on her kitchen table. ``I've got one in the bedroom and one here,'' Rosemary says, patting her best friend. ``I've been getting many more good laughs from the radio shows than TV. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. where all the good TV writers have gone. That sitcom canned laughter annoys me. I don't have to be told when to laugh.'' She pauses, looking fondly at her best friend. ``Have you noticed how hard it is to find a radio that's just a radio these days,'' she says, taking a quick right turn into ``Seinfeld'' land. ``They all come with clocks, cassette players, CDs. What if you just want a radio that's only a radio? Can you still get one? And where?'' She pauses again, letting the observation sink in a little before she's off and running on another topic. ``I measured myself against the wall the other day. I've shrunk shrunk v. A past tense and a past participle of shrink. shrunk Verb a past tense and past participle of shrink shrunk, shrunken shrink three inches. Pretty soon, you're not going to see me anymore. ``Ah, what the heck. I've got nothing to kick or feel sorry about. I've had a healthy body all my life, had only one cold I can remember. I've been very lucky.'' But even smiles have to fade once in a while - when the pain gets so bad that even a short, slow walk with help to the mailbox A simulated mailbox in the computer that holds e-mail messages. Mailboxes are stored on disk as a file of messages, a database of messages or as an individual file for each message. The standard mailboxes are usually In, Out, Trash and Junk (Spam). puts her back in bed for the rest of the day. But even from there, Rosemary can find some humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was , something to laugh about. ``There's an old saying that sometimes kindness kills,'' she says, lining up her crossword puzzles crossword puzzle, word game in which words corresponding to numbered clues are put into a grid of horizontal and vertical squares to form intersecting words. The puzzle is solved when a player supplies all of the words correctly. , her second best friend. ``It took me 20 years to break in my old mattress. It fit every curve of my body. I loved that old thing. ``Then, one night a couple of springs pop, and my daughters find out about it. The next thing I know my old mattress is out, and they've bought me a new, hard one. ``I love those girls dearly, but I haven't had a good night's sleep since,'' she says, laughing at how sometimes kindness may not kill, but it sure does hurt. ``Do you mind if I write you a letter from time to time?'' Rosemary asks me as our visit nears an end. ``Just to let you know how things are going?'' No, I wouldn't mind at all, I tell her. In fact, I can't think of anyone I'd rather get mail from to find out how things are going. Anyone who can make me walk away feeling so happy and lucky - like I've just kicked over a rock and found a sparkling jewel underneath. MEMO: Dennis McCarthy's column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. |
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