Through Remember When I have met many elderly people - and I am often amazed by what they have achieved in life, whether it is struggling through being evacuated during the war, serving in the armed forces at any given time, or dealing with the general hardships of life. But one person, Danny White, certainly stands out.
Danny arrived in the Evening Chronicle offices one day with sheet music from the days of the silent movies. He sang during the silent films - obviously many, many years ago.
I interviewed Danny and he related his life story to Remember When, his schooldays, war service, etc. Now Danny was very sharp, definitely left me standing (though that's not too hard) and, later I edited his story for Remember When.
But when I typed in his date of birth I believed I had got it wrong, I had misheard him. So when Danny returned to collect something I had borrowed, I enquired how old he was, saying I had misheard his date of birth and had him down as 100.
"I am 101 on my next birthday," said Danny. Now we have set preconceptions of the elderly, one is that their faculties begin to wane.
Danny was so fit and, all I can say, if his mind was on the wane, he must have been a genius not so many years ago.
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