As a child, I looked at old people and felt great pity for them.
They looked very different. Their faces were wrinkled as were their fingers and the skin on their arms and legs. They had false teeth that they put in a glass overnight. In those days, old men became distinguished with age. Old women seemed to be ebbing. I thought that beauty is probably important at every stage in a person's life. And so I felt sorry for old people, never at that time imagining that someday I, too, would grow old.
As a matter of fact, I'm a senior citizen. I have false teeth that I wrap in tissue. I have a double chin that I try to hide with my fat fingers by putting my digits on my chin. I continually gain weight and the clothes I love to wear don't fit like they used to. I'm currently in lockdown because the COVID virus is all around. Although many are susceptible it's the old people who die, those with preconditions like, in my case, asthma. My husband, on the other hand, is diabetic and a cancer survivor of his thyroid. So we choose to stay indoors even when the government is loosening up on lockdown. We want to wait two more months to see if another recurrence will occur.
I love being old. When you are old, marriage is lots better. You understand each other and can read each other's emotions as they are particularly predictable. You learn to negotiate and you can assess in advance what you can negotiate for. If in the end, he says no, you can decide if you will get away with sneaking that negotiating issue through anyway. Sometimes I slip it through and he turns his eyes away. Other times he gets really, really mad. But in the end, we are okay because we love and trust each other. If you don't have love and trust in your old age, I feel very sad for you. Because it's when you're old that you're supposed to be relaxed and well settled in your ways (with room for the occasional adventure or two). It's the age when you should care for each other the most because you are both most vulnerable.
As of now, I'm 64. I'm considered "young old". I still have friends my age and older. But I have two friends in their 90s. One is named Rupert, who is 92. The other is Tita Babes who is 94. I wonder if they have other friends who are alive and also in their 90s. I wonder if there are any entertainers of their age who are still alive as well. I wonder what it feels like to be that age and to have lost most of the people you know and love. I wonder what it's like to depend on your children.
They looked very different. Their faces were wrinkled as were their fingers and the skin on their arms and legs. They had false teeth that they put in a glass overnight. In those days, old men became distinguished with age. Old women seemed to be ebbing. I thought that beauty is probably important at every stage in a person's life. And so I felt sorry for old people, never at that time imagining that someday I, too, would grow old.
As a matter of fact, I'm a senior citizen. I have false teeth that I wrap in tissue. I have a double chin that I try to hide with my fat fingers by putting my digits on my chin. I continually gain weight and the clothes I love to wear don't fit like they used to. I'm currently in lockdown because the COVID virus is all around. Although many are susceptible it's the old people who die, those with preconditions like, in my case, asthma. My husband, on the other hand, is diabetic and a cancer survivor of his thyroid. So we choose to stay indoors even when the government is loosening up on lockdown. We want to wait two more months to see if another recurrence will occur.
I love being old. When you are old, marriage is lots better. You understand each other and can read each other's emotions as they are particularly predictable. You learn to negotiate and you can assess in advance what you can negotiate for. If in the end, he says no, you can decide if you will get away with sneaking that negotiating issue through anyway. Sometimes I slip it through and he turns his eyes away. Other times he gets really, really mad. But in the end, we are okay because we love and trust each other. If you don't have love and trust in your old age, I feel very sad for you. Because it's when you're old that you're supposed to be relaxed and well settled in your ways (with room for the occasional adventure or two). It's the age when you should care for each other the most because you are both most vulnerable.
As of now, I'm 64. I'm considered "young old". I still have friends my age and older. But I have two friends in their 90s. One is named Rupert, who is 92. The other is Tita Babes who is 94. I wonder if they have other friends who are alive and also in their 90s. I wonder if there are any entertainers of their age who are still alive as well. I wonder what it feels like to be that age and to have lost most of the people you know and love. I wonder what it's like to depend on your children.
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