Nora Hecker

SENIOR STAYS YOUNG WITH HER MAGIC ELIXIR Byline: Dennis McCarthy

The keeper of the magic elixir of life giggles, and the years melt away.

It's the summer of 1984 again, and 75-year-old Nora Hecker is being courted by the U.S. Army.

The fact that she's 10 years over retirement age doesn't seem to faze the Army's recruitment center, which is sending out circulars looking for a few good women.

The Army sends her a promotional watch, followed by reams of recruitment material about how happy she'd be in today's new, coed Army.

Thank you for the offer, Nora writes back. But at 75, I think maybe I should pass on this career opportunity.

The Army persists. It sends her another watch.

You still have them? I ask her, catching up on old times.

Nah, they were cheap knockoffs, Nora says. They both broke inside six months.

The keeper of the magic elixir of life, now 89, laughs at the memories, and the years keep on melting away.

When I'm 89 - if I'm ever 89 - I want to be exactly like Nora Hecker.

No matter how many curves and sliders sliders life throws her in old age, she keeps on bobbing and weaving - ducking some, getting hit by others.

A few months ago, she got hit with a big one. A fall left her partially disabled and unable to live on her own anymore. Like a lot of seniors, she reluctantly had to move into an assisted-living facility.

That's like putting a beautiful golden eagle in a cage.

There are no young people around, she says. Some are senile senile, others are in walkers and wheelchairs. I looked around, and it finally dawned on me. I'm one of them now, outside my head.

Inside my head, I'm still 39, she adds, with a wink and the mischievous giggle that's her calling card.

And for the first time it dawns on me that maybe the Army hadn't really made a clerical error 14 years ago when it tried to recruit a 75-year-old woman.

Maybe the Army knew all along what it was doing going after Nora Hecker. She could have taught all those young recruits a thing or two about life.

Like you never, ever give up.

I'll tell you what this does for me, Nora says, staring at another Monday morning. It opens up my whole week with a laugh.

And if you're laughing, you can't think about something unhappy, she adds with a wink.

In a few minutes, she will grab her walker, leave this Van Nuys retirement home and head for a little theater in North Hollywood called the Bitter Truth.

It's where her improv group - the Silver Streak Players - meets at 10 a.m. every Monday to work on comedy skits.

Parodying and satirizing the likes of Clinton, Starr and Gingrich in 1998, just like they were making fun of Reagan, Bush and all the sacred cows of 1987, the last time I looked in on the wonderful Silver Streak Players.

They started their improv group 15 years ago with 35 seniors who, like Nora, knew the real magic elixir of life wasn't the medicines their doctors had prescribed.

It was laughter. Laughter would help keep them young, vital and active - no matter how many curves and sliders life threw at them in old age.

Look at the woman up on stage now, Nora says. Her name is Ruth Halpert, and she's on the mend from a brain tumor operation.

Recuperating from one of those curves by getting back up on stage again and throwing out one-liners like Henny Youngman, keeping the room in stitches.

Powerful elixir, laughter.

But just like a poker game, Nora jokes, sometimes you need fresh money in the game to keep it going.

So here's the deal, and it's a great deal. The Silver Streak Players are looking for some seniors who want a shot at being young again, Nora says.

Seniors who want to share some laughs, have some fun and spit in the eye of old age, the keeper of the elixir of life says - melting away a few more years.

You can reach Nora at (818) 988-4528.

CAPTION(S):

photo

PHOTO Eighty-nine-year-old Nora Hecker of Van Nuys was heavily recruited by the Army during the summer of 1984, when she was 75.

John McCoy/Daily News

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