What Do Old People Do All Day?

 I have seen this question many times on Quora.

Well, I’m very old, so I suppose I’m expert enough to answer.

My favorite quote is “So much to do, so little time!” When one is very old, as I am, it is quite normal to think any time left on the planet can’t be much. In which case, it’s best to complete your bucket list, or start one. Quickly. That’s why most days I am feeling pressured to finish every project I have started. It may be a painting, making a new quilt, watching movies I haven’t seen yet, or looking up old friends to see if they are still alive.  (Usually they aren’t.)

On the other hand, I remember that my grandmother lived to be 98, and that gives me even more to think about.  She spent her last decade in a nice little nursing home in a rural community. They tend to be comfortable. She could still get to the bathroom by herself and to the dining room with her walker. She spent her days reading, writing long letters, and following the British royal family. She adored Princess Diana. She had British ancestors and understood them quite well.  She never got dementia and even wrote a brief autobiography for her descendants before she died.

My father lived to be 95, and he was in a different nursing home. He read the newspaper every day and only died when he fell and received a head injury.  I have at least a dozen ancestors who lived very long lives.

The possibility of living to nearly 100 is scary to ponder, having seen so many people who were not as fortunate as my grandmother. When I visited my dad, I walked through a lobby filled with men and women of all ages, sitting in wheelchairs and simply staring into space, having forgotten who they were. So no, I would just as soon check out sooner than the day I should come to that kind of life.

And then I remember that we often draw to us the thing we fear most, so I work on keeping that fear as well as any others out of my thoughts. The laws of attraction really do work, you know.

My granddaughters wonder why I haven’t died yet, because as I said, I am very old!

(to be continued. I have to go sew now.)