Word puzzle, bridge hands for retirees

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

San Diego:

At about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, 75-year-old Don Jenkinson’s life at the retirement home was thrown into upheaval.

Grab three things: your medication, your identification and a change of clothes, he was told. Soon he and 120 other residents of the Mount Miguel Covenant Village Retirement Community in Spring Valley were lining up to board buses.

‘We could see the flames,’ he recalled. ‘It was scary.’

The facility was in the path of the Harris fire burning along the Mexican border. The buses were moving residents several miles away to a shelter at the San Diego High School gym.

Things were calmer by Tuesday afternoon. Jenkinson was playing a word puzzle in the campus courtyard. Other retirees were playing bridge; some took strolls.

They have what they need and they’re being treated well, Jenkinson said.

-- Ari Bloomekatz