Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Elderly

The "coffee klatch" topic on Monday, was what is elderly, when are we elderly? The topic continued yesterday at a party I was at..........the subject came up because when I was in Houston at the hospital with my friend Amanda, the Drs. kept referring to her as "elderly". She is 62! Ok, that would make Raquel Welch, elderly!!! If you met or saw Amanda when she's NOT in a hospital you would think she might be 50.........so finally when a 40-something female Dr. referred to Amanda as "a woman THAT old", I called her on it! Sorry, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I said, "Wow, I'm offended. I can't believe you refer to her as "elderly" and "old"" She's only 62. The medical profession needs to change their attitude about age!"
So, that was the topic for two days. A few in our coffee klatch group are near 80 but you would never know it unless they had told you. One woman in particular, who is my buddy at the Tuesday Market, can shop more then I could ever imagine and is always ready to do more. She wears ME out. And, she's 15 years older then I am..........
Living here in San Miguel has been a BIG eye opening experience for us ex-pats as it relates to age. Many, many 80 and 90 year olds are still playing golf daily and tennis a few times a week and volunteering in a zillion projects. It cetainly has been an eye opening experience for me.
So, the consensus is, it's all about attitude and health. We've all known people in their 50's who act and feel older mentally and physically then many of us "older" folks. WE still have a lot of "life" in us! It IS the "golden time" of our lives. (By the way, I'm 65 and sure don't think of myself as elderly!)

2 comments:

Gin said...

Have you heard the quote -
"My problem is not how I look, it's how you see me)?

It's sad we can't see others as a person and not an age.

Babs said...

Great quote Gin. Thanks for sharing!
Babs