Surviving 60 and Above: Or Enjoying with Humor The Best Years of Your Life
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
by Fran Larson
http://www.franniesquotes.com/
I didn't even see it coming. It happened so fast. I blinked my eyes and POOF, there it was. Why didn't I see this unwanted enigma creep up on me? Could I have stopped it? Maybe if I had some kind of weapon?
Didn't others warn me about this blight? I looked all around for help. Was I alone? I was drowning.
Didn't anyone see me? Throw me a life jacket. Please. It happened. This thing. This unfamiliar, unrelenting thing. It swallowed me before I had time to figure out an escape. There was no mercy or preparation. I somehow didn't think it would happen to me. Me?
Father time caught up with me to matter how hard I ran. I couldn't run anymore. They no longer asked me at the Bealls Outlet Store if I was over 55. (On Mondays, they give an extra 15% discount for people 55 and older).
I turned and gazed in my full-length mirror. Gray hairs peeked out from my temple and below my ears, as it was time for my monthly "touch up." The extra ten pounds stole my size 8 and dignity. Wrinkles are getting harder to hide. In fact, I think make-up truly accents my wrinkles. Wow! Will I have to stop wearing make-up too? What about my age spots? How will I cover them? It is like swatting flies, I destroy one, then another appears. No matter what, I can't stop wearing my eye liner that I have worn since my twenties. Can I keep putting it on? My eyes are a bit wrinkled and it is a little harder to put on plus the fact that this medication makes my hands shake. Eek! Help!
My husband just got back from getting a haircut. "Haircuts went up another dollar," he laments. That's another thing. The money thing. Although we have saved and planned for retirement, our income doesn't keep up with the cost of living. "You can only take out 7% each month," our Financial Planner reminds us. The money we have saved cannot be spent. It is only a vessel to produce the 7% that we can have each month along with our Social Security checks. Our four children insist that they do not want any money handed down to them but no doubt there will be our little nest egg for them. That's OK. I am thankful that we saved the money. It just is ironic that we can't spend it. I think of all the times Jim, my husband worked two jobs so that we could save money for retirement.
OK. I have to get a hold of myself. I try to think of the Hollywood Stars that still look great but I'm not a star. I don't have a personal trainer and a make-upartist to work on me. Maybe they look good anyway. I tell myself not to be so jealous.
I talk to myself all the time. They say you shouldn't answer yourself, but I do that, too.
"Frannie, you have to have a sense of humor," I tell myself. "You will never survive if you don't find something entertaining about all of this."
Survive? What exactly does that mean? Keep afloat? Live through? Endure?
Wasn't I being dramatic? Of course people survive 60 and older. I see them all around me. They are like busy bees fluttering around. Don't they know they are getting older? How can they be so happily buzzing around as if they have all the time in the world?
They are surviving the best years of their lives.
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Top-level comments on this article: (8 total)We've all got it coming Fran! Life is funny when you stop to think about, I try hard not to stop and think about it too often. Be the best you can be at 40, 50, 60 and so on. That's all we can aim for. Good article, I feel your pain, but something tells me you'll get through it. :)
Fun read, Fran. I've had some good years in the past. When the kids were little, life was a lot simpler. Still, I'd have to say that the best year of my life is this year.Jean and I have this joke: We start every week saying that if we can only make it through this week, everything will be fine. Seems like we've started every week like that for the past 24 years. I guess we are surviving the best years of our lives, too!
Hey, 60 is starting all over at the bottom of that decade! I am getting more to the middle of it coming in April - it is where your heart is! Keep the humor and keep writing I enjoyed your writing this piece. Marijo
Fran, well let me say, you don't look 60 in your photo, but maybe the photo is not of you when you were 60. Don't answer that, it is impolite to try and determine a womans age! 60 is looming for me as well but I still think of myself as around 35-40. You are obviously young at heart, some people can be old by the time they are 55 some are still young at 75, I think you will be in the latter category.
Enjoyed your article. I love being sixty plus but my head doesn't know it. It's keeping that little fact a secret.Linda D
Hi Fran who needs a personal trainer and make up artist when you have brains. You wrote a great article here. And you know Fran when you looked in the mirror and seen those grey hairs and wrinkled eyes etc I thought you were talking about me.Keep well Fran bcause I don't think it gets any easier. I have often thought what to do with my money that I'm saving for when I age, but theres no fun when you hit that time because I don't think a granny on a zimmer frame would enjoy jet skiing like she would if she were thirty years younger. I think I will spend my few bob now while I am able to do the things that creaking bones, bad eysight and more will prevent me from doing later down the line. Oh Hell I have reached that line.Keep safeKacy
Thanks Madam..this article will be my motivation to face my life because I am too young to do this life...life is hard, so don't make it too hard, but life is easy, but make it to easy
Fran,What a great article and I so enjoyed your humor. Funny thing, I've had the exact same thoughts for the last few years! In additon, I think my makeup eccentuates my wrinkles but heaven forbid I go without! I remember some years ago putting eyeliner on my mother's eyes -- she was blind -- and as I tried to draw the line, the wrinkles kept getting in the way and I realized I would eventually be at that stage of life. Oh boy, do I see it coming. What I have found, though, on days when my eyes are exceptionally puffy, is that it is much easier to draw the line if I slip the liner under the fold of the wrinkle!
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