Now That I'm Seventy-Five . . .

Before I had lived the first quarter of my life I used to wonder what it would feel like to be old. Now that I have lived three quarters of a century (I turned 75 at the end of May) I should know.

Strangely enough, I don’t think I feel much different than I did in my younger years! For example, I loved the smell of lilacs in the spring and I still do. I loved to read and write, to communicate thoughts and ideas, to sing and to listen to music, to eat delicious food, to spend time with friends. None of that has changed.

Bodily changes happened throughout my life ... as I evolved from babyhood to infant to teen to childbearing to menopause to old age. I should be used to them by now. I’m taking them in stride. What has probably made the biggest difference is life experience and the lessons I have learned as a result.

Being a #3 on the Enneagram, I’ve convinced myself that 75 is not really old yet. We just returned from a road trip to Ontario. Our son-in-law’s grandmothers, both of whom we have learned to love and appreciate over the years, are now 96 and 100. Comparing myself to them, I am still at the “young” stage of old age. I do realize that we all age very differently. The 96-year-old is still very much engaged in the life around her and her doctor recently gave her a clean bill of health! She served us warm biscuits and tea, and gave us some homemade raspberry jam (made by another senior in her complex). The 100-year-old has no quality of life and requires constant caregivers. Although her family celebrated her birthday, she was not aware of it.

I recently read an article in the Winnipeg Free Press ("Living longer not the same as living healthy longer," by Blair Roblin, June 1, 2018) in which the author writes about "health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) which measures the average length of time people can expect to live in a healthy state, essentially without illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. For Manitoba, Statistics Canada reports a HALE of 67 for males and 70 for females, more than 10 years short of life expectancy."

I am thankful that I have passed that statistic and have no health problems yet. However, I do want to prepare myself for the inevitable, without being morbid about it!

Right now I'm enjoying memories of our trip to Ontario and back (Hardy is 80 now and we were a little apprehensive about doing the yearly road trip, but we managed quite well by pacing ourselves and taking two night lodgings).

Our four grandchildren in Ontario were so excited to see us and to celebrate my birthday with me.

Their homemade card was very special and designed with so much love.

Our four grandchildren in Ontario were so excited to see us and to celebrate my birthday with me. They had prepared a puppet show that was pretty amazing. There were endless Aggravation games with Opa, and they kept a running score to see who won the most games! Oma told and retold and read many stories and spent time at the nearby playground with them. We ate lots of ice cream and pizza and went to Swiss Chalet together with the other set of grandparents who also had birthdays in May.

The day after we returned, Lena Kate (10) called us and said that she felt sad because we were not there. She said that she was lying on our bed missing the story times we had together. It made me sad too, but also happy because of the love we shared.

"Time is a valuable commodity which moves in only one direction. So the best present a parent [or grandparent] can give to a child is the Present. It will eventually become the Past on which the Future is built." (Libby Simon, Winnipeg Free Press, March 22, 2011)