AGING & DYING

Date: 11:31:32 02/24/2008
From: doremi is an octogenarian. (41) nicegrandma777
Preferred Author
Online Now
Est. October 23, 2005


To: Maria Mize (6) kimbro1958
Registered Author
Online Now
Est. August 22, 2007


Size: 3.50 kb
Show headers | View message source

         Because I am computer inept I did not know how to get into your site on aging and dying. I am eighty years old and time has done some things to me, one of them being the loss of my eyesight to a large extent, two minor strokes and a general slowing down. Believe me when I say that fifty is a very young age and in many ways I think of my fifties as a great decade. The children were raised and launched, and we had our health and finally were able to do things we had wanted to do. Joe took early retirement due to an injury and we finally had time together.

         Joe lost his fight with cancer five years ago. It was a battle and for a time we thought we were winning. He went Home in June of 03.

         As I get older, more of the chairs around my table become empty. I go to more funerals than baby showers these days.

         The women in my family live a long time. Mother was 90 and my sister 95. I know that God has something for me to do, or He would have called me Home by now.

         In my second half century, I had a ten-year career of prison ministry in which I volunteered as a Bible teacher at the conty jail, working with the women there. I can't do that now because of my eyesight, but I am to have two corneal transplants shortly and a second chance to see.

         Life is good and God has let me have a lot of it. I am sure more to come in His good time. The Bible says, "If the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, He shall quicken your mortal body." I ask Him many times to quicken my body when I am tired, and He does.

         I know that someday, maybe soon, I will leave this body behind to be put in the veterans' cemetery next to Joe, and I will move on to begin really living by the grace of God that saved my soul and made me ready to live with Him.

         That is my take on aging and dying. I am at peace about it because I know the One who holds my times in His hands. I love to sing the old song, "When we've been there ten tousand years~~"

         Please read my poems "Cemetery" which is about what I know about death, and you might like my poem "The Invitation."

doremi