Growing Old Gracefully

Growing old gracefully has nothing to do with a person's physical characteristics or abilities. Those things naturally decrease with age. To grow old gracefully means to acquire virtues or beneficial qualities which do not decrease with age.

If we want to grow old gracefully, what virtues should we strive to acquire? To answer this question, we must look at the senior citizens we know or have known throughout our lives. What are the qualities we admire most in them?

The senior citizens I knew best were Grandpa and Grandma Newland, my mother's parents. After our parents divorced, they practically raised my brothers, sister, and me.

The thing I admired most about Grandpa was his patience. He punished us when we disobeyed or did something we should not have done, but he never became angry with us. And he never complained, although I know his last years were filled with great physical pain.

Grandpa accepted his cancer, as he did every other bad thing which happened to him in his life, with forbearance, steadfastness, and long-suffering. If he could do something about a situation, he did. Otherwise, he continued to live, as best he could, without complaining or cursing God.

The thing I admired most about Grandma was her ability to make her own decisions. She kept well informed about national and world events so that she could vote wisely in national elections. And she always had her say about the way "their" money was spent.

Then there was Grandma Darbe, my father's mother. The virtue she demonstrated was independence. After her husband died and her children left home, she lived quite comfortably on a small pension check. For many years she continued to cut her own wood for an old iron stove, make her own clothes, and walk a block to the grocery store.

For about a year, I took care of an eighty-five year old lady in her home. Kate was a wonderful person, who was friendly towards everyone. If someone came to read the meter, she always offered that person a glass of water. Or when workers came to la y carpet, she had cookies and coffee to offer them.

Patience, friendliness, independence, and the ability to make your won decisions are only a few of the qualities that allow one to grow old gracefully. Other qualities, which are equally important, are unselfishness, neatness, and the ability to enjoy life.

Of those last three qualities, unselfishness is the one I admire most. This is the ability to share with others. If an older person does not have the material wealth to share, he or she can still share wisdom and experience.

Every day I see senior citizens getting out into the world. They are doing things for themselves, not because they have to, but because that is what they want to do.

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