ATLANTA -- While U.S. Rep. John Lewis recovers in a local hospital, another civil rights icon returned to the public eye after spending some time in the hospital.
Ambassador Andrew Young gave the sermon at his church this morning.
This is the first time Young has been seen in public since he was hospitalized in May after he collapsed at an event in Tennessee.
“I decided that everybody in this day and age has to live to be 100,” Young joked.
At 86, Atlanta’s former mayor is living up to his name. And he thinks he has at least 14 more years to go.
“I’ve spent this last couple of months trying to decide what is my role for the next 15 years,” he said.
But back in May, life made him slow down, right as he was about to speak at Fisk University.
“I just collapsed in Nashville,” Young said. “They diagnosed this staph infection which had gone pretty far.”
He was transferred from Vanderbilt Hospital to Emory.
“I really was sick for two months,” Young said, but that gave him time to reflect.
“One of the things that happens to you when you’re 86 and really sick is, you’re much more aware of death than normal. I never felt I wasn’t going to recover, but I realize how close I came.”
Fifty years ago, Young was following Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., around the world. For the 50th anniversary of his assassination, most of those places wanted him to come back.
But jet-setting was easy, 50 years ago.
“I was 35 at the time,” Young laughed, “but it evidently really wore me down this time.”
Today, he’s back on his feet, even if it’s just long enough to find another seat, but he still gets the attention of the whole room.
On Sunday, that room is the sanctuary of his home church.
Young started preaching more than 60 years ago. Today, his foundation works to help feed the hungry. And while his body isn’t the same as it was when he was 35, “my heart and my mind are good enough and I think I’ll be able to help for a little while longer."
