On growing old
I was taking a snack break at the mall when I saw her. The woman was about 70 years old or so, definitely someone who should already be in retirement. I noticed she was browsing through the classified ads section of the weekend paper filled with ads for jobs in different call centers.. She isn’t still looking for a job is she? I thought. Silently, I hoped she just didn’t have anything to read and was just whiling away her time.
When I see old people still working for a living, I feel a bit of dread about growing old.
Of course, the ideal plan would be to set up all kinds of safety nets like arranging for a retirement plan, term insurance and all manner of savings and investments to make sure you won’t have to work way past your retirement. But that just takes care of the financial part.
I guess I feel a bit more anxious about the thought of becoming dependent on other people.
Time will come when I’ll grow old, weak and incapable of taking care of myself. And that is inevitable.
How do you prepare for the emotional letdowns of growing old like feelings of being unwanted and useless?
A couple of times when I got the chance to go to homes for the aged, I saw that the old men and women there were happy simply because someone remembered them or even bothered to spend time with them.
I guess I should be thankful that I live in a country where sending elders into retirement homes is an exception more than the norm. I’d like to think most families still take care of each other especially the elders.
I’ d rather imagine growing old as an enriching experience to make memories for the last leg of my journey.
I always tell Kernan I want us to grow old together. I imagine we’ll be living in a country home just enjoying life with each other. We’ll reminisce our love stories and make new memories. The children will come to visit with our grandkids and weekends will always be like a grand family reunion.
I’d like to think that Kernan and I will remain healthy physically and mentally when we grow old. And when the time comes when we’ll have to leave, I imagine it will be like one of those scenes in “The Notebook.”
We’ll be lying side by side, holding each other’s hand, locked in each other’s arm and together, we’ll slip away quietly into the night into forever.
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Just Jayme, Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
