A Gullible Story

My name is Patsy Wheatley, and this is what I like to call a gullible story—one of those stories where people believe something that, when you really stop and think about it, doesn’t quite make sense. But at the time, everyone just goes along with it.

My husband and I were traveling throughout Europe many years ago, and at one point we were on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. It was supposed to be a pleasant journey, but all of a sudden we ran into trouble. We ran out of some of the basic food supplies—bananas, I remember very clearly, and I believe we were also short on milk and a few other things. Now, that might not sound like much, but when you’re out in the middle of the sea with no land in sight, it becomes a real concern.

To make matters worse, there was a hurricane. The sea was rough, the wind was strong, and everybody on board was upset and anxious. People were pacing, talking among themselves, and worrying about what would happen next. Some of them were especially concerned about the food situation. I remember hearing people say, “Where are we going to be able to get bananas?” because, you know, there are people who feel they absolutely must have bananas every single day.

Now, my husband was the type of person all the women seemed to love. He had a way about him—very charming, very attentive. He was the one who would escort the ladies at night, walking them back to their cabins and making sure they were settled in. Don’t ask me exactly why he had that effect on people, but he really was a magnet.

So there we all were, outside on the deck, with people complaining and worrying, and the storm was just beginning to let up. The sky was clearing a little, and the sea was calming down. Then, quite unexpectedly, we saw something unusual—a one-man submarine.

I had never seen anything like that before in my life. It was small, just big enough for one person, and it looked quite strange out there in the water. My husband explained to me what it was because I truly had no idea.

The next morning, something even more surprising happened. All of a sudden, we had bananas again, and we had milk. Everything people had been worrying about seemed to have been taken care of. And yet, we had not reached any port. We were still out in the middle of the sea, with no explanation given.

So my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Well, we know how we got those bananas and that milk. It must have been from that one-man submarine.”

We said it in a way that was half joking, but also just serious enough.

And believe it or not, everybody believed it. No one questioned it. They just accepted that explanation as if it made perfect sense.

That is my gullible story.

About Me

I am 90 years old now, and I have lived quite a full life.

I was born in West Virginia, and later I was educated in Iowa. After that, I came to New York as a college student, which was a big change for me at the time. I went on to work as a researcher in medical research, which I found very interesting and meaningful.

I have two daughters, two grandsons, and three great-grandsons, so my family has grown quite a bit over the years. They are spread out in different places. Some of them live quite far away—as far as Nebraska. I do have one daughter in Queens, though she is sometimes here and sometimes not, depending on what she has going on.

My husband died on March 1, 2025, which was a very difficult time for me. Later that year, on August 1, 2025, I came here to Atria.

Life Now

Living here at Atria is certainly a change from the life I was used to before. It takes some getting used to, as any new place does. But I will say that the people here are very nice, and that makes a big difference.

Like anything, it has its good points and its bad points. But when I think about it, the good points—especially the people you meet and interact with—really do outweigh the bad points.