Meet Beatrice Joy

Beatrice Joy San Diego CA

“I’ve  been smiling since the day I was born!” Betty said to me on the waterfront in San Diego.  I saw her coming from a block away, that bright yellow sunflower and the yellow scarf around her jacket on a very bright morning in September.  How could anyone miss the big floppy straw hat laden with more flowers?  However, the smile was what caught my attention.

Betty, as her Daddy insisted everyone call her, she explained to me, was pouring her motorized wheel chair through the throngs of bicyclers, runners, baby strollers and in-line skaters beside a mass of ships and boats of every description.

As the 90 year-old Beatrice Joy got closer, I could see that she wanted to strike up a conversation. I was glad to accommodate her. She had a certain magnetism that could not be refused. She told me she was able to wheel around on the pier each day for at least an hour and how her mind was getting sharper because she was having a coffee each day on her stroll.

I didn’t get the impression that she was one of the unfortunate homeless characters I encountered on my quasi photo shoot/distance walk for the day.  She was well cared for, clean and manicured.  She was thin, but not undernourished that I could see.  “The man at the coffee shop is so good to me.  He gives me a cup of coffee for free when my money is tight.”  Beatrice Joy allowed me to take another picture before she wheeled off singing and smiling (since the day she was born).

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