IF I HAD IT TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, I WOULDN’T HAVE THE STRENGTH

A recent column from Carolyn, written May 2011!

While reminiscing, a mostly agreeable curse of the elderly, we dredge up lots of fine memories. Those halcyon days, when the skies were eternally blue, when friends were all around, and health issues never needed be addressed.

Where are those days now, now when we really need them?

We all remember our salad days when life was, if not easy, at least workable. In those days of wine and roses we looked good and felt well. Life was to be lived to the absolute fullest.

(And so it was. Flash forward to now. Today.)

First, No More Travel

Unless you count the local Publix and the occasional Thai restaurant. At ages 70 and (Frank) 75, and after all our assorted illnesses, we are simply too weary to do much that’s not directly connected with staying alive.

Frank complained the other day that for the first time in his life, he felt the burden of every year of his age. Thank God, the feeling goes away. At least for now.

So why do we hang on so fiercely?

To reminisce is one good reason. Our walls are covered with beautiful photos taken by Frank and me all over the world. It is such a joy to sit back and just look around. And we still remember when and where every shot was taken.

Frank and Carolyn's living room.

We have learned a couple of things 1) We’ve gotten to the point in our lives, if we’re going to do something, better do it now. And 2), to survive happily, you need a keen sense of humor.

We still have good friends, but seldom do we connect personally. We live in the age of old, and with it, my dears, many days of appointments with one or two, occasionally three members of the medical profession. That’s a day-full.

Today we take handfuls of pills, lotions, and potions, and still cannot regain that feeling of youth. We can’t even stay even. Could it be that we are growing old? Perish the thought!

Green Bananas

After all, we still buy green bananas. Daring folks that we are.

Come to think of it, neither one of us could now don a flight suit and parachute, only to hop out of a perfectly good plane at 15,000 feet. (A feat our children still cannot comprehend.) Would we now have the strength to travel to the Maasai in Kenya, to meet, greet, and kiss giraffes?

We take out our large globe, the one we bought at Hong Kong’s Stanley Market all inscribed with Cloisonné written entirely in Chinese, and look at the world as we know it. We see fun. Lots of fun, lots of miles, many of them spent in a long tube, just getting there.

But you know, each day I wake, I’m so grateful. Here’s another day to enjoy, another day to love and be loved. Another day to see Frank and feel how much I love him. As I love our son, John, here taking care of us, tending to our every need. We certainly could not have gotten through these past few months without him.

You see, life can be sweeter still as we approach our final performances. If not, make it so. We certainly intend to do so.

And FYI, my dimples now have wrinkles.

“What a long slow journey it has been”- J. Garcia