Age can bring wisdom.

Experience is the great teacher.

Sometimes things are clearer in hindsight.

Newsday asked seniors across Long Island — some retired, others still working — for their insights on life and legacy, and the here and now. Over the decades they’ve seen a bit of everything, still have plenty of room for optimism and say what the world needs most is l-o-v-e.

Here’s what else they told us:

Wendell Mealy

Age: 84

Hometown: Greenport

Retired military and from the Southold Highway Department

What would you tell your younger self?

To get a good education. Education is No. 1, otherwise you’re not going anywhere. Even if you get that education, that’s not the only thing, it depends on your family, where you come from. It takes a lot to make it.

What is your best advice for dealing with adversity?

Get involved. Find out what’s what. Ask questions, find out what you need to know. You have to talk to people; without conversations you can’t understand people. That’s one of the biggest problems in the world, people aren’t talking or listening to others. People now don’t care to understand one another, they want to stay in their own world.

What is your happiest memory?

Just being alive, to be able to get along even with adversity and injustices.

Annie Maltie

Age: 83

Hometown: Uniondale

Teacher’s aide, retired from her day care Just Kidding

What would you tell your younger self?

I would have prepared more, but I didn’t go through hardship, I think I’ve had a good life. I never knew my mother, she died in childbirth. Back then, Black women were not allowed in hospitals. There was a midwife.

What is something you never thought you would see happen, but you did?

I didn’t think I would see the integration of schools. Keeping education away from us started in slavery, we were not allowed to read. Integration was the biggest thing. Everybody can learn if given the chance.

What is your happiest memory?

I have a son and two daughters. My daughters graduated from college; my son started college but didn’t finish. My grandchildren have completed college. They are all on the right track, that’s what makes me happy.

Theresa Hightower

Age: 70s

Hometown: Holbrook

Retired social worker, currently associate pastor at the Long Island Breakthrough Center

What would you tell your younger self?

I wish I had trusted God more at a younger age. When you’re young you think you know everything, you don’t even think God knows what He’s talking about. You don’t believe He is as awesome as He is. I depended on myself. Over the years I have come to know God is faithful. No matter what happens, some good comes of it. God always wants what is best for you.

What is something you never thought you would see happen, but you did?

I grew up with racism, but I saw Barack Obama become president and get elected for a second term. I see our current vice president, JD Vance, whose mother was addicted to drugs, who had to grow up with his grandparents, but he went on to college, became a senator and is now vice president. God can do it for anybody, he is no respecter of persons.

What would you like to see changed in America?

I want to see a world where people are walking in truth, where we love one another. We are all serving ourselves, not God. I want to see us united. Everybody is fighting, everybody wants to be first.

Audrey Robinson

Age: 68

Hometown: Port Jefferson

Specialized home health aide

What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell them that a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins. That’s one of the first things I would tell anyone in the younger generation, never give up. Follow your hopes, follow your dreams and don’t just let depression, low self-esteem stop you from being the best you that you can be. You can do anything that you put your mind to.

What is something you never thought you would see happen, but you did?

I never thought I would see a Black president, but that happened. Outside of that we’ve never had the border crisis like we have now, but I’m kind of grateful that the president is putting that on check. Another thing I never thought I would see [is] anybody harm children in school, going in there, shooting them like today. My heart bleeds for young people in elementary school and high school. They should never have to experience that.

What is your happiest memory?

My happiest moments were when my father was alive, he provided for us. We owned a house. And then I remember feeling happy a lot around the Christmas holidays. Of course, as I grew up, one of the happiest days that I had was when I first got married years ago. Even though we’re not together, but the memory of how it happened, and how I was able to have a church wedding with a bridal party and all that, certain things just have a precious memory.

Deborah Cuevas Cherry

Age: 65

Hometown: Commack

Manager at Con Edison in charge of employee outreach and engagement

What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell myself not to stress over fitting into a role at work that doesn’t feel comfortable. Eventually you will find a place for you. You don’t have to follow a pre-set pattern in employment. You will find your own path. It may not be what you initially thought, but you will find what works.

What is something you never thought you would see happen, but you did?

Right now, the amount of the deconstruction of civil society is something I would have never thought I would see. I’m very alarmed that basic norms of behavior are not what they used to be. People no longer seek to get along with each other, people take extreme delight in deriding the path others are on. They can do so anonymously on social media, so it’s insidious. People aren’t seeking their own growth, progression.

What is your best advice for dealing with adversity?

You have to know where you are going, what your goal is, and you have to take the steps to achieve them. Understand that adversity is ever present. There will always be someone who dislikes you because of where you live, where you went to school, or some other reason. Don’t let their impressions deter you. Be true to yourself, pursue those things that fill you and give you joy.

Jim Wood

Age: 84

Hometown: Shoreham

Owner and publisher of Minority Commerce Weekly

What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell my younger self to get out of my own way. I didn’t pursue some opportunities when I was younger because I wasn’t sure I could master them. Later in life I learned to put my big boy pants and shoes on. Don’t become your own obstacle, there are enough obstacles.

What is your best advice for dealing with adversity?

See adversity as an opportunity. Look at it as a learning experience. Every adverse situation I have had I learned something that I can use in my life.

What is your happiest memory?

Marrying Shirley more than 30 years ago and the birth of the three boys we have together. Those two things have to be right on the top of the list.

Bishop Robert W. Harris

Age: 82

Hometown: Uniondale

Pastor of Grace Cathedral Church in Uniondale

What would you tell your younger self?

I would have encouraged myself to be more aggressive in the civil rights movement when I was in my 20s. I attended the March on Washington in 1963 when I was 20, but I could have done more because there was so much yet to be done at the height of the movement. I was involved, but I could have been a bigger part of it.

What is something you never thought you would see happen, but you did?

I was not prepared at all for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I was a follower of his, a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from a distance. I was shocked, despondent for a while. It made me get a little more involved. I did the Million Man March [October 16, 1995] and took my two sons, a neighbor and a young man from church. I felt the need to spark that commitment, to motivate my boys to get involved in the community.

What is your happiest memory?

When I got married 60 years ago to Novella. She died a couple of months ago. Getting married is one of the highest moments, as was when my four children were born. I’m a retired New York City police officer. I was happy when I joined the police department.

Georgianna

Ferriera Joseph

Age: 78

Hometown: Uniondale

What would you tell your younger self?

I would learn my history. I was a curious child, I wanted to know about myself as being a Black American, so I asked the teacher about Black history, and she smacked me. I smacked her back, and I got smacked when I got home. Back then when you asked questions you don’t get an answer. I know more about my history now, but I should have learned more about my history a long time ago. All kids should know their history, especially Black kids. What I’ve seen about slavery, what they did back then, that hurt me.

What is something you never thought you would see happen, but you did?

I saw something on Long Island I never saw in Brooklyn where I grew up. I saw the Klan walking down the street in white robes with burning crosses. It freaked me out.

What is your best advice for dealing with adversity?

Just try to be happy.  

Howard Joyner

Age 73

Hometown: Hempstead

Retired master electrician

What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell myself not to change anything. When you can go through life happy and content, you don’t need to change anything, maybe just be a little more patient. Everything I’ve done to my knowledge was to better myself, so why would I change a better me for something else? What would I become by changing? My father used to beat me once a week, that’s how bad I was, but I wouldn’t change a thing, none of it.

What would you like to see changed in America?

The prejudice. Being Black in New York in my day, I’m from the King era, it was hard. I am a Black man, light skinned, with blue eyes. So even in the ghetto I was not accepted as Black because we looked like we were white. My grandfather’s mother was Blackfoot Indian and that’s where we get all this from.

What is your happiest memory?

When my daughters were born. Next to that I was married to two wives. I’m not going to compare them one to the other. My first wife died of cancer in 2008. I’ve been married for the last eight years.