Thanks for the post, I did wonder if other people silently struggle too.
I’m hugely sad at giving up running the village fete coconut shy, windsurfing, I cried when I couldn’t even manage to stand on a SUP, still have a stuntman kingsized trampoline - can’t use after knee surgery….
Wanted to revisit a campervan trip with bikes right around the Brittany coastline with a friend (after being widowed) - but the friend also died. Ditto a risky long hike and challenging climb with friend on the remote west coast of Fuerteventura - it won’t happen.
Sat in tears on a cliff in Turkey, having climbed down the summer before, I had now lost my nerve…
There was no book telling us all of this when we were young!
Also remember in Sardinia seeing an older lady unloading a wheelchair from her car and getting her frail husband carefully into it - so we pushed him the mile or so uphill for his last view over the clifftop….
On the other hand I try and take comfort in what I can do - sail a solo catamaran (instead of the windsurfing), climbing into the river for a swim, (a struggle to get out though) and long exploratory sea swims into distant coves….