Shirley Batchelder isn’t a woman who believes in leaving things undone.
The 94-year-old retirement home resident — still of sound mind and able to get around quite well, as evidenced by her regular emceeing of game time at Steeple Chase Manor Retirement in Franklin, Tennessee — did have one thing she still needed to accomplish from her bucket list , however.
She had always wanted to run an ad on television.
Born in 1921, TV was not even around. In fact, the first known photograph of a moving image is of a man named Oliver Hutchinson, produced by his business partner, John Logie Baird, and his “televisor” machine in 1926.
So Shirley Batchelder literally saw television created and developed for close to a century of her life, from the first sets tube-based sets to digital.
During the course of her life, she married a man she still refers to as “dark, curly hair, handsome as can be.” They were together for 57 years and had a “happy life.”
But when she started thinking about her bucket list, she realized there was still that one thing she’d never done. So she recently purchased five seconds of TV ad time to leave the world with the only message that matters to her, and the only message she thinks should matter to all of us.
On a black screen with simple white letters, she wrote simply, “Love one another.”
In comments to WSMV, she said that it was “ultimately up to everyone what they decide to do with that.”
“Love one another,” she repeated. “Love one another.” Check out her video here:
Since Batchelder gave her story to the local news network, it has been picked up by various national news outlets like Inquisitr and Opposing Views , the latter of which has already amassed thousands of likes and comments with most ready to take Shirley up on the offer.
“Bless her heart. She’s so right.”
“Thank you for reminding us before it was too late.”
“In just three words, she made a profound message.”
During a week where the state of Tennessee and the nation has suffered a terrible loss with the deaths of five Marines in the Chattanooga shootings, many felt it fitting that a message like this one would come from the very state where the crime happened.
What do you think, readers? If the world listened to these words from Shirley Batchelder, do you think we’d be better off? Furthermore, in our day and age, is it even practical? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
[Image of Shirley Batchelder via WSMV , linked above]