Senior moments

[larryJ]

SHE'S SET TO BE 17 FOREVER..................

Suppose you were able to freeze your age in time.  How old would you choose to be?  Kimberley, who contacted me in response to my request for stories from readers who are "Happily Old," says her heart and soul will always be 17.....her favorite year.

"I lived a full life in the last 33 years," she writes.  "My personality most certainly has matured.  My education and my work experience have shaped me and I am a much deeper person.  But inside, deep down, I'm still 17."

In fact, as the people she knows and loves age, she still sees them as they were.

"So, here I am, having just turned 50, and my dad will be 86, and my mom will be 81, my husband is 60; and yet, I am still 17!  So Dad is still 52, Mom is still 47, and my husband is still 27.  And it's all good!" 

If you are thinking that this whimsical way of looking at life and aging speaks to a carefree person, I would agree.  And yet, Kimberley is far from carefree.  At least physically.

Two years ago, she was "hit", as she describes it, with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a degenerative nerve disorder, that has left her a paraplegic.

Life as she knew it, has changed forever.  Things that she once took for granted are no longer possible.

"Dreams I had of taking ballroom dancing lessons are gone, and we have yet to attempt travel." 

But, it doesn't make her feel old. Her spirit is still 17 and she still dreams of "What I want to do with my life, with certain accommodations, of course, for my disablilty.

Giving a new face to courage, Kimberley says she knows she will continue to age and her body will continue to betray her.  "But I will forever be of the mindset of being 17, with the rest of my life ahead of me."

And that is just how she rolls  ----  with the help of a power wheelchair, of course.

___________________
Saw this today and thought I would share.

Larryj

[Judy Harder]

Larry, my sentiments exactly..............no, I do not have what she has, but my mind still feels like a young one.....18 would be a good number........didn't know anything about life, except I couldn't wait to live it.............Oh, sigh,
No I would not want to relive it, or maybe I do.......but at the age I am, and the body God has made, I am more content now than I was about 10 years ago.
You do have to live with your disability for a bit to get use to the fit..........and taking it a day at a time.
one day, if I must, a wheel chair or a walker or the like could be in my life, but I have a good inspiration in Mrs. Bird, who at her age, and I hesitate to quote it, but I am pretty sure she is in her 90's....uses a walker and when she walks with it, I dare you to keep up with her. LOL
thank you for sharing this with us.