The old adage that age is only a number was never part of my vocabulary as I never thought about my age…I simply got on with life and living it!

I fobbed off the forgetfulness, with the theory that I had a butterfly mind and had so many projects in the air, that it was little wonder I forgot where the car keys had gone, or that I had bought the same item of groceries only the previous day and wondered why I had two of them now, or that the hard-boiled eggs had boiled dry until I heard the explosion in the kitchen!

I streamlined my life when I moved house, many years ago. Never again would I own a lawnmower (I loved having a garden but not mowing the lawn or weeding!) and there would be a place for everything and everything in its place. As a creature of habit I could instinctively know that the shopping bags would be in the boot of the car, the house key would always be on a certain hook, the pills would always be next to the kettle, ready for the morning, the coffee and tea caddies could be found in the dark if necessary, as they sat on the shelf next to the kettle. Sad life you may say, but it meant that I had time to put my thoughts into more important matters.

Whenever I change my car, I never seem to be given a choice of colours and so my latest car is black. No one was more shocked than I was, when I realised how many people have black cars in a supermarket car park!.

I thought I had solved this problem by sticking on some bright red poppies…however they do not glow in the dark and they are easily hidden in between other cars and so, a lovely lady gave me a surprise gift of a red ladybird to push onto my car aerial so that I could recognise it from a distance and the colour matched the poppies! All was well until recently when I started questioning myself again about the whereabouts of the car in the car park. Having eventually tracked it down, I realised that not only had the ladybird disappeared but so had the car aerial!

However the radio still worked when I switched on the engine so it reminded me again that in old age I only sweat the big stuff! Then I started looking at people with a new eye…not only the policemen looked so young, but so did my doctors and even the car mechanics and even my neighbours! How many times have I met strangers who begin a conversation with “You used to teach me…”. Funnily enough this has not depressed me but in fact has enhanced my social field as I enjoy hearing from folk who are 50 years younger than me and have so much new information to give me.

It has been said before, and I do believe it, that old age is 15 years older than I am… so when I’m 90 perhaps I’ll defer to being of an age where I can expect to be helped across a road or someone in church finds the hymn number for me! Meanwhile life is beautiful and varied and full of surprises so when the joints take time to get into gear, and the eyes take time to focus, remember that all the years of experience you have is an advantage, so that you can survive another day and clock up another adventure!!! Final thought and what a consolation someone else has said it first……Alex Cole, baseball player “My memory’s starting to go…the only thing I can retain is water.”!!


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