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Canterbury's Tales Of Our Longer Lives

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 4, 2008

I was supposed to meet Charlie at Canterbury Tower for lunch. He wanted to talk about Dudley Clendinen's new book, "A Place Called Canterbury," coming out this month.

But when I went to the receptionist's desk at the retirement apartment on Bayshore Boulevard, there was no Charlie. A call to his apartment went unanswered.

Lucille Foster, a resident I had met before, was standing there. "Come on," she said. "I'll take you to the dining room to see if he's there. On the way we'll check out his mailbox and see if he is still alive."

Having read Dudley's book, I knew what she meant about the mailbox. Each resident is supposed to come to his or her mailbox in the lobby before a certain time each day and raise the flag on the box. That's a signal to the staff that you are up and about, and at least well enough to make it downstairs.

The flag was up and we knew Charlie was kicking, even if he wasn't in the dining room when we showed up. That was OK with me. Mrs. Foster looked to be good company, and she is prominent in Dudley's book. I can call him Dudley because there was a time several decades ago when we shared seats next to each other in Annamae Whitehouse's English class at Plant High. He must have been paying attention, since his career took him to The New York Times and this splendid new book that you are going to want to read.

Dudley's father, James Clendinen, was the longtime editorial chairman of the Tribune, but the book is about his mother and her final, declining years, spent at Canterbury. At least she is the centerpiece of a story written after he decided to move into the building to be with her and then write about life and death in the world of this enclave for seniors.

'Here Comes The Boogey Man'

"It is about a new experience, especially in family relationships, as people are living longer," he says. When he decided to write about the world of Canterbury, he asked permission from the board of directors, who sent out memos to all the residents, telling them he would be hanging around and it would be their option to talk to him. "It was sort of a 'Here comes the Boogey Man' warning, and that was me," Dudley says.

Judging from the results, Dudley gained not only the trust of many of them - he had known some growing up in South Tampa - but some remarkable insights into growing older in our society. Canterbury Tower is hardly typical of an American senior center. It's top of the line and not cheap by a long shot. But it also isn't just a South Tampa crowd, either. There is a fascinating mix of religions, social backgrounds and lifestyles.

The Sandwich Generation

For Dudley, writing about those final years with his mother was a catharsis. It gave him a chance to come to terms with several things in his life, as he talks about in the book.

For the rest of us, "A Place Called Canterbury" will touch you at several levels. It takes us face to face with a brave new world we are all dealing with, especially with baby boomers moving toward retirement and with the so-called "sandwich generation" that finds itself confronted with taking care of its children as well as a generation that is living much longer.

Sweet, often painful in its detail, Dudley's "Canterbury" is a tale for us all.

Steve Otto's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

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