Category: aging
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Golden Years Sometimes Bring Tears
Age-wise, I am in a sweet spot dubbed ‘the golden years’. The term was first coined in a 1959 ad for Sun City, Arizona, considered the first active adult retirement community. The phrase is supposed to conjure images of retirement, leisure time, relaxation, enjoyment of life – a stretch of time before the ailments and…
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Red, White, Blue, and Other Colors Too
We think of red, white, and blue when celebrating 250 years of our nation’s history. That is noble and patriotic. Unfortunately this year I am not in a celebratory mood. A combination of personal angst because of family health issues, and unpatriotic angst due to the chaos our country currently experiences, my celebration meter hovers…
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Forgetting the Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary
As we get older and more stuff clogs our mind, new information and experiences shove older material into the far reaches of our brain. We forget math equations learned in high school, the authors of once-favorite books, the names of fictional characters and perhaps the storyline. We remember lyrics of a song, but not the…
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The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel: The Movie
A look back at a favorite movie recently viewed again on a streaming site. I am not an avid movie theater patron, but one movie I willingly spent a few precious dollars for was The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel. My Mom, sister, and a girlfriend liked it. My brother-in-law hated it, but he and I do not…
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A Baby Boomer’s Musings on Her Life
Many baby boomers who grew up during the 1960s have exciting stories to tell about their sex life, their drug escapades, their Woodstock experience, their protest days. Not me. I can tell you what I did not do: I did not experiment with drugs. Drugs do not like my body. In my early 20s I…
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Hanging Out With Old Friends
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson One evening four couples reunited at a restaurant to revel in friendships, relish a temporary respite from grandkids, and celebrate birthdays. Because of busy calendars and homes geographically dispersed, time between get-togethers sometimes…
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I am a high-rise newbie
I drive up to the building’s entrance, grab my pocketbook and purchases from the back seat, and enter the apartment house I now call home. A parking attendant takes my place in the driver’s seat and steers my car into the garage. If there are too many bags to carry the doorman piles my things…
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Up Close and Personal With My Nose
“You have hair in your nose, Grandma.” Thank you now-disinherited seven-year-old granddaughter. There are parts of the body that, although always with us, we pay little attention. For instance my ears, imbedded on either side of my head, are forever with me. Sometimes I stick a pair of earrings in them. Most of the time…
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Memories in Boxes and Shopping Bags
Photo albums and high school yearbook My sister walked in my house this week laden with boxes and shopping bags full of stuff. Classify the stuff collectables, mementos, souvenirs, or what the items actually are – a life’s legacy. Pictures, most of them photos in frames, costume jewelry, photo albums, plaques, and miscellaneous, uncategorized items.…
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Goodbye Mom
My Mom passed away this week at the age of 100. Here are some memories I shared at her funeral. Rose Mandel and Sam Shilowitz welcomed baby girl Elyss Shirley on January 2, 1925. Her father Sam bought a two-story building on Main Street in Cedarhurst, Long Island, and opened a general store. The family…