I stopped in the local pet shop the other day to buy meal worms for the remaining class pet, one of two sweet girl geckos I brought home when I retired a year ago. She's . . . can she be 9 now? Her sister died recently, and this one--Tillie or Lizzie, I never kept them straight--lives alone in the aquarium that has prime real estate in the living room . . . so I won't forget to feed her. And, okay, so she'll have "socialization," such as it is. Sometimes she gets more attention than I do, but that's a post for another time.
I live in a home of old creatures. An old gecko, and old cat, who at 18 is amazingly youthful despite her missing teeth, and gives me more attention--and eye contact--than my husband (also old) does. But this is for the other post I mentioned.
I'd made a comment to the woman at the pet store, a joke really, about having mid-life issues. And then I thought, "Midlife. Who am I kidding?" To be truly MIDDLE aged I will have to live to 116.
I got a book from the library the other day, Memory Lessons: A Doctor's Story, a memoir by a gerontologist who writes of his father's Alzheimer's disease. He calls his father the "oldest old."
It seems that in the world of gerontology "old" has been split and redefined in several categories. Age sixty-five to seventy-four is considered "old." Those between seventy-five and eighty-four are labeled "old old." And the "oldest old" are eighty-five and up.
The young me
I'm none of those yet, but I hope to become each of them in due time. I'm "old mid-life" if I may create my own label, but I feel ageless inside. As my father said in his latter years, "I feel like the young me looking out of the same eyes." I guess this is why mirrors or photos provide a jolt. Who is that old middle aged person that looks a little like me?
May I someday be among the oldest old?
Yes, please!
~~~~~
Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative. ~Maurice Chevalier
Comments
The picture of you on the couch gave me a start.....I have a picture of our second daughter Julie, at that age, and you are a dead ringer... I can't believe the similarity...will have to dig that photo out and email it to you.
Love and Hugs
Wanda
"I leave it to God's decision' he said, "I myself am afraid to pray ,ask for more years,for more presents. I have children aged 50 which is the age when illnesses make their appearance and sometimes ,a 50 year old child dies before a 75 year old parent. I wouldn't, couldn't face a tragedy like that".
I so enjoyed this. I'm turning 60 in a few months' time, which really does feel like a milestone. It's also rather scary as my family members, on both sides, are not long-lived (apart from the one grandmother who reached 104). My mother managed 65, my father and his brother reached 70, but many in the family didn't do that well. Every time I sneeze I think: "This is it!"
Your father's words, the "young me looking out of the same eyes" are exactly what I've been searching for to describe my situation. I honestly feel to be, still, about 20 (a tad naive and wondering at the world) as I shuffle along in my quite-old age. I wonder at my aches and pains "This isn't right!" ... but, of course, it is.
And then I notice I wear my trousers rolled ...
Cheers!
R.
Now, bring on the post for another time about the eye contact ;)
As Mark Twain said, "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." I like that philosophy. :-)
I loved this. My grandmother's sister (what would that make her to me? Great Aunt) Betty used to say, when she looked at herself in the mirror, age 89 or so, "Well, I see you have your mask on today."
As you know, I just turned 60, but I certainly don't feel sixty. I think we all have a younger version of ourselves lurking in our brains. Perhaps that's why there are so many injuries in the old; we just think the kid in our mind can do stuff our decrepit bodies can't handle anymore.
Love the photo of the cat.