• Health
• Money
• Leisure
• Make a Difference
• Family
• Online Community
• Membership

I can remember when sixty two was OLD.  I mean, in our fourteen and fifteen year old minds, it was. Sometimes at church, we would have an older sister or brother stand up and testify and maybe once in a while, they would add the years they had been "running for the Lord".

Well, in your young mind, you can see someone doing something like a marathon race for the Lord. We didnt know where or why, but if they were over the age of thirty...they were OLD. Like our thirty or forty year old parents. Just OLD.

We often talked about how they smelled..these old folks. Like medicine and long johns..even in the Summer. If we went to visit someone in what was termed, "the old folks home" which to us meant a safe place to put your doddering old and smelly people...we would hold our breath and make faces behind the backs of the people who took us there.

Now, I didnt have any relatives in the old folks home. All of our old folks still lived in their own homes. Like my Great Grandmother Ada Mae and her daughter...my mother's mother..Miss Willie Mae Thomas..or as she was affectionately known, Grandma Willie.

Great Grandfather died when he was 112, Great Grandmother Ada Mae passed when she was 83 and our Grandma Willie Mae, just died at the age of 103, three years ago.  We never thought of THEM as old, because they were so vibrant and strong willed..right up to the end.

So, here I am. Mother of six ( two of my children are deceased) grandmother of thirteen and I am going on sixty two. October 26th will herald the fact that I have seen sixty two summers. Wow! 

Funny thing is, I do not think I smell bad. I exercise often, walk a lot, work part time and write stories and poetry. I love online games and chatter away ten to the dozen to my friends. My world is bigger than the world of my ancestors. Bigger, brighter, faster and of course, I am of the wonderful generation that was and remains curious about everything!  The survivor in us keeps us going and going, like that pink rabbit.

Working in a number of nursing homes forever erased the queasiness that I used to experience when I visited them as a child. I met people one to one and loved on and appreciated them, even when I was in my thirties and forties. Working among these wonderful people gives one a glimpse into the future of sorts. I have laughed at their jokes, held their hands, and grieved profusely at their passing.

When one truly grows up....beyond the calendar years, we begin to see things in a different light. In the light of inevitability. In the light of the "circle of life".

I am happy to where I am. There is a whole new world to explore at this Autumn part of life. Discoveries and adventures, and boy! am I ready!