A Life Well Lived
I visited an aunt recently who has a lot of different physical issues. She’s in her early 80’s now, but as a young wife and mother, she had boundless energy and worked hard to care for her little people and husband. She always had a very large garden and farm animals. She canned foods harvested and tended to the animals when her husband was busy with other duties. Her yard boasted beautiful flower beds and plants that welcomed any visitor. She could cook amazing dishes, sewed for her family and still made sure she had time for church activities!
At our visit a few weeks ago, this amazing, vibrant woman looked beaten as she deals with physical illness and worse an emotional loneliness. She still has family near by and in fact, even lives with one of her daughters, yet she’s experiencing devastating loneliness. She’s the last living of all her siblings…..all eighteen of them! Yes, you read right. Her mother gave birth to twelve and one set of six was inherited when her mother who outlived three husbands, remarried one who had six children! She feels alone and separated, with the deaths of her siblings.
Another woman I loved very much, my mother-in-law, suffered from Alzheimers. It was awful watching this debilitating disease steal my mother-in-law’s mind. She, like my aunt, was also an amazingly vibrant woman. But when this disease moved in, she changed into a woman who lived her life vicariously through “her programs,” the game shows in the morning and then the soap operas, each afternoon, until she reached the stage of not being able to cope with the world around her in any normal fashion. I was devastated the day we moved her to a nursing home because we were, as a family, unable to properly care for her any longer. The disease caused her to become aggressive, argumentative and unwilling to take medicine or respond to everyday situations.
Dementia is yet another villain stealing our elderly. One well-known man in our neighborhood actually laid down in the road to nap without understanding what he was doing. Arthritis and osteoporosis robs victims of their ability to stand and move freely, while falls cause broken hips and shoulders that are determined to not heal quickly, causing isolation and the loneliness like my aunt is experiencing now.
Stated simply, age affects and changes all of us. Those who deal with disabilities in any area of life, are no different and when age is added to the equation, the disability can be exacerbated. According to statistics, the most common disability affected by ongoing age, seems to be in the area of mobility which includes the inability to walk, dexterity or even stamina; followed closely behind by cognition. and independent living.
I’m no different than anyone else. I’m not crazy about “growing older.” But the reality of life is, we age every day. It’s what we do with our lives while we still are able, that makes a difference. Again, age absolutely changes things. And while the changes can be frustrating and debilitating, disability or not, we have much to offer those around us, as we reach what is sometimes known as our “golden years!”
I encourage you to be as productive, in as many creative ways you can, while you still have cognitive ability and health! Use your unique talents and abilities to enjoy your life, and make other’s lives as happy and fulfilled as only you can do, and you’ll both be happier for it!
Photo Credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/930767447958119227/