The Simple Man
Preston Graves has never been
rich. But as he will tell you, his
life has been all but poor.
After 30 years in the army,
during which he and his family were stationed
in Germany, Belgium, Italy and
Libya, he retired as a colonel after serving
in World War I and Vietnam, to become
a math teacher at Woodberry Forest School
in Virginia, where he taught for two
decades.
This month, Poppy, the name given to
him by his biological grandchildren and all
of his neighborhood children, will turn 91.
His long life may be credited to his
nature. Poppy is a simple man.
“Some people spend all day trading
stocks,” Poppy smirks. “That would drive
me crazy. I’m just a good ole’ country boy.”
Poppy was born on a cold winter’s day
in Marshall, Virginia, a town so small he
claims you’d never find it on a map.
“We’ve been lucky,” he says of the years
he shared with his wife Alma.
“The main reason I have lived so long,”
he says, “is because my wife gave me six
children.”
Poppy is not afraid to give Alma all
of the credit for rearing them. When he
wasn’t traveling with the military, he
admits he was playing golf. Alma raised
them all herself.
“She was the rock in this family,” Poppy
says.
Today his family tree extends beyond its
roots. Mention any neighbor living to his
left, right or across the street and he will
state, “They’re a part of the family.”
That goes for the dogs and cats too.
Madeline and David Flagler’s dog Kukui
and cat Charlie visit Poppy daily while
their masters are at work.
When collecting vegetables from his
garden, learning to drive on his golf cart or
just checking in, extracting the miniature
Mr. Goodbars (all of the neighbors’ favorites)
from the candy jar, Poppy teaches
each person he meets about the value of the
people in his life.
“One of the things about living this
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WBM january 2012
long,” he says, “I think primarily, you’ve
got to hand it to supporting family and
neighbors.”
With the help of his doctors and God,
family and neighbors by his side, Poppy
explains he’s overcome cancer twice.
“You’ve got to give credit to longevity to
really good medical care,” he says.
He also gives credit to his ancestors
before him for living long lives.
But whether it’s in his genes or in his
mind, Poppy says, “I think really, seriously
the reason we have been happy with our lives
is that we were happy with what we’ve got,
what we had. We didn’t need more. If we
had more we would have given it away. Alma
and I said, ‘You know if we were billionaires
we wouldn’t live any better than we do right
now. We wouldn’t want to live any better.”’
For Poppy, just enough is good enough.
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You don’t worry about things. You
worry about people,” Poppy says. “Not
worrying about dying or living either, that
really helps.”
Preston “Poppy” Graves
Courtesy of George Graves