Autumn Years Fall 2024

exploring they incorporate their love of the earth into their lives. She stops to answer a cell phone call from her husband. The four-hour time difference means that the 3pm conversation here was at 7 pm there—on a day when rains flooded the road by their home. Weather can be extreme there; and if there is electricity, on hot days they run the air conditioning, which is expensive. They keep in touch through text, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and phone calls, though he has to buy internet time, and she renews his hours via her how

N’Nassady, Kathleen, N’Nassady’s mother, and Denise.

Sunset on N’Nassady’s village in Guinea.

meal. During Ramadan, I had to have water during the day. In the evening there is prayer together. Men and women eat separately, and I was even more separate.” Kathleen and N’Nassady (who is a decade or two younger) were joined in marriage in 2015 in Brazil. Their two countries are connected in ways that many people do not realize.

“it was like being in church.” She has attended the Montclair Jazz Festival and heard legendary saxophonist Houston Person and singer Etta James at a club in Hoboken. “Music and arts keep the universe going,” she explains, adding that “gratitude is the attitude.” She wants people to enjoy life, observing that “As we get older we can become younger— with the ability to see life with a childlike wonder. I am profoundly grateful for, even with the twists and turns, where my life has taken me. All I have is my next breath. I intend to explore and engage in whatever life presents.” a

Kathleen and N’Nassady on their wedding day.

cell phone. Kathleen talks about taking art classes and yoga classes at the Oakland Senior Center, as well participating in a

She asks her cell phone: “In what ways are Guinea and the U.S. linked?” The answers include biodiversity, and natural resources such as diamonds and bauxite, which is refined into aluminum, among other products. She hopes they will be utilized to empower the whole country. “Right now the wealth goes outside the country,” Kathleen says. Other countries to which she has traveled include Peru in the 1990s with a shaman friend, Switzerland, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. She also vacationed on an island off of Conakry. She recalls visiting New Mexico as well, part of continuing to learn about indigenous people and

women’s wisdom group. She does dance and drumming, referring people to the Kripalu website to learn about the benefits of drumming. Music has always been a part of her life and says that she loves all kinds of African music as well as the fluidity and spontaneity of jazz. When she used to go to a jazz club in Paterson,

N’Nassady preparing lunch for Kathleen.

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AUTUMN YEARS I FALL 2024