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<\/p>\nEllen Olsen was a long time fan of my books who, when I met her, had graduated from Ballard High School more than fifty years earlier, making her what the folks in the neighborhood call \u201ca Ballard Beaver. Years ago she sent me a fan letter\u2014a last century form of communication. It was written in pen and ink on a note card and mailed in an envelope, with a postage stamp, post mark, and everything. In it she gently chided me for a passage in one of the early Beaumont books where Beau referred to a woman in her mid-seventies as \u201celderly.\u201d At the time Ellen was well north of seventy herself, and she certainly didn\u2019t regard herself as elderly.<\/p>\n
At the time, I was in my forties and the seventies seemed like a very long way away. Guess what? They\u2019re not. They\u2019re here\u2014not quite \u201cmid-seventies,\u201d but close. And this week, when a newspaper headline referred to a 77 year-old woman as \u201celderly,\u201d I went looking for my note cards so I could send the paper a piece of my mind. Actually, that\u2019s not true. I wouldn\u2019t use a note card these days\u2014my handwriting is too bad. But I didn\u2019t send an email of umbrage, either, because it turns out elderly is in the eye of the beholder and not necessarily in the pair of eyes looking back at you from the mirror.<\/p>\n
My one grandmother didn\u2019t make it to her sixties. My other grandmother conked out at age 76. From my point of view, they were both elderly at the times of their passing. I\u2019m turning 73 today and I don\u2019t feel the least bit elderly. Announcing my birthday is not a ploy to get people to send me birthday wishes, although I\u2019m sure many of you will. It\u2019s a simple statement of fact. It\u2019s also has to do with the reality that I\u2019m in better physical condition right now than I\u2019ve ever been in my whole life. I usually walk 12,000 steps a day. That translates into five miles. I do regular workouts with curls and hamstring stretches and sits to stands. I practice balancing almost every day. Although my achievements in that regard pale in comparison to my two granddaughters\u2019 poise on gymnastics balance beams, I\u2019m still better off in the balance department than I\u2019ve ever been before. (My mother always maintained that there was never a school or Sunday school or Bible school program where I didn\u2019t show up with at least one skinned knee.)<\/p>\n
This past Sunday I was the \u201cAuthor of Honor\u201d for the 2017 Helldorado Parade in Tombstone, Arizona. Never having been a homecoming queen, it was amazing to be riding the parade route in an open-air convertible, and believe me, that convertible was a sight to behold! It was a 99 year-old, Barolo red Nash!! Compared to the car\u2014which could safely be termed \u201celderly,” I was the “sweet young thing!\u201d<\/p>\n
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Perspective is everything. I\u2019m glad to be \u201colder than dirt\u201d at the moment; happy to be a late bloomer; amazed about that long hard climb, with, as Helen Reddy used to say, \u201ceverything taking its own sweet time.\u201d Tonight, to celebrate, Bill and I are going to put on our fancy duds and go out to dinner, just the two of us. We\u2019ll probably look old, but we won\u2019t feel old.<\/p>\n
Depending on where you are on your own life journey, I may seem elderly to you. And I realize now, that when Ellen Olsen sent me that note, she wasn\u2019t elderly, either.<\/p>\n
Thank you for providing that piece of wisdom, Ellen. You\u2019ve been gone for twenty years now, but you are not forgotten.<\/p>\n
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