RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) – The nation’s oldest full-time park ranger was greeted with cheers and hugs when she returned to work three weeks after an assailant attacked and robbed her in her San Francisco Bay Area home.
Her bruises healed, Betty Reid Soskin, 94, beamed as fellow rangers embraced her Tuesday at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, facing San Francisco Bay.
“It feels wonderful,” she said of being back at work, “because it gives me another chance at establishing a new normal. Sitting around home in the space where all that happened was a little less comforting.”
Police said an intruder punched Soskin repeatedly in the head and made off with items including a cellphone, laptop and jewelry on June 27.
The thief also took a coin Soskin received from President Barack Obama when she introduced him at last year’s National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House.