What age do you think you are?

I’m 77. Until recently I felt considerably younger, particularly in my head, but now after 18 months of post op buggerations - one thing after a flipping other - which seem to have taken the stuffing out of me, I feel my age. I don’t like it. The mirror sometimes tells me I’m younger, but not often, especially on days when I see my aged mother staring back at me. I finally took the bull by the horns this week and my lovely young GP has referred me to a physio and also to a get-fit person who, she said, will make a new me! Not overly optimistic but will definitely give it a go.
‘Old age don’t come alone’ 🤪

I'm 83. After doing my hair and putting on lipstick in the morning, I look in the mirror and think I look pretty good for my age. However, when I catch myself looking in my lounge mirror, all I can see is a face full of wrinkles. That's obviously the honest mirror, sadly.

I don’t really think about my looks, I’m me and I’m loved, that’s my greatest achievement Cariad husband, children and grandchildren.
Age is immaterial really, I have a happy life, with ups and downs, but consider myself fortunate, still pretty active, great social life and hobbies.

CariadAgain

Does anyone else compare their age with what achievements they have (or havent) made?

I know I spent decades waiting for and trying to work towards having a (finished) detached house in reasonable area and generally being financially straight - and THEN I'd be able to fully get on with Life Proper is how I saw it. It took until 70 years old though to have that and it feels a bit late (a lot late) to think "Right - now I can Get On With Things fully" - but I'm 70 now".

It's sorta "How can I rewind my body back to, say, 40 or at the latest 50 (ie when that was due imo) and then I can have years of starting in properly on things from that Fully Together position?"

What age was everyone else when you thought "Got the basics fully together - now I can start in on things properly"? or are you still waiting to get to that position? or have given up hope of ever getting to that position?

I never had a plan 'to get all the basics and then......' yes, I wanted to own a house but once we had one, while we vaguely hoped we would be able to buy a bigger/better one at some time. It was never an aim in life.

I and we just wove our lifes into a seamless cloth of doing the things we wanted to do and taking opportunities when they presented themselves. It has led to an interesting life, with its up and downs of course. Some things we haven't achieved, but we have also achieved things we never even dreamed of.

Kate1949

I'm 76 too and I can't figure out what happened!

Exactly the same! 77 early next year - 3 years off 80 😱! I still can’t understand how the hell I came to be so old!

I never aspired to a detached house in a reasonable area. Maybe I wasn’t aspirant enough. We bought a big terrace then moved to the semi I still live in when the children needed a proper safe, enclosed garden. We prioritised affording Europe camp, decent food and family outings over buying a ‘better’ house. I avoided bigger mortgages to ensure living ok on our wages.
Cariad, your post reminds me of the importance of aiming to live in the present. I

I’m 62, but will be forever 35 ( in my head ) and if a great song from my youth comes on the radio I’m 17 again.

I'm 73 people say I don't look it ,I weigh too much but after going through 3 diagnoses of cancer I feel lucky to still be here even with aches and pains.
I am with others on here I feel sad that i will after leave my family.

Be More Grace!!

Grace Chambers has just completed her 250th Parkrun at the age of 97.
Grace started running at the age of 88 after open heart surgery.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgjydg65373o

She is certainly an inspiration! 🏃‍♀️

Iam64

I never aspired to a detached house in a reasonable area. Maybe I wasn’t aspirant enough. We bought a big terrace then moved to the semi I still live in when the children needed a proper safe, enclosed garden. We prioritised affording Europe camp, decent food and family outings over buying a ‘better’ house. I avoided bigger mortgages to ensure living ok on our wages.
Cariad, your post reminds me of the importance of aiming to live in the present. I

That "detached in reasonable area" is only a 2 bedroom bungalow (no garage/no utility room) - very ordinary LOL. I had to move to a cheaper area to get it - my starter house in home area sold for about £168,000 and I bought this one for under £150,000 and LOTS more money spent subsequently on nearly completely gutting it. So say £250,000-£280,000 if it went on the market now and the equivalent where I'm from wouldn't leave much change out of £500,000. Hence the move was necessary....

I do get your point re living in the present - but I've never felt able to do that as a single/low-paid person and so I felt I had to do extra work/plan/use the intuition that has occasionally helped me/plan some more. I had to see the funny side of it when I've seen the reaction of people who knew what the house was like before I bought it - as their eyebrows shoot up and my garden is an absolute testament to all sorts of logical decisions made - for it to be the apparently semi-wild foodgrowing one it now is.

Re Grace - and good for her. She's got guts.

I admire people who take up a major new interest or something at an advanced age.

I've seen or heard of people I knew of taking up learning the violin or trekking across the Sahara Desert on the back of a camel and good for them.

I think I am half my age but look in the mirror and know I'm not.

But of course I know that I am 26, quite slim, long copper hair, living life travelling singing meeting people learning codes and cyphers etc. However round here there is something wrong with the mirrors in shop windows. I never seem to catch a glimpse of myself, there is this flipping slowcoach of a woman with white hair and walking sometimes in an odd way and quite slow. She says she is 80, so have no idea who she is but shee seems around a lot, sometimes as Gangsta Granny on the Yellow Peril. !! I often feel frustrated about the struggle to do things that used to be easy but not sad often , there is always so much still to do, places to go books to read paintings to see and do. When I am older I will probably slow down a bit, at the moment there is so much wants sorting out but havent time there is life to be lived. However painful or struggling it is of course better than the alternative!!

That's got me wondering if I'm the only person I know that is such a planner - that I've got at least start-off plans for the Next Stage (ie Heaven). First one being - welcome home party with "virtual" champagne.....but I've got a noticeable number of other plans for "afterwards"......travel defo....lots of travel.....

I have yet to meet anyone else who has said "After I'm 'dead' I will do such-and-such...." LOL.

I catch sight of my mother in a shop window or mirror, then realise it’s me

Iam64

I catch sight of my mother in a shop window or mirror, then realise it’s me

You’re lucky! I see my grandmother!,

Crosstitfhfan 😂😂🌞

Crossstitchfan

Iam64

I catch sight of my mother in a shop window or mirror, then realise it’s me

You’re lucky! I see my grandmother!,

You're lucky !
I see my Dad...... I look very like him......

Fascinating that we see our older parents in our older faces. Never thought I looked like mum, photos confirm I didn’t, yet in my mid seventies, the likeness is impossible to ignore. I hope I live as well as she did to mid eighties

Neither I nor my sister look like our mother. I did not at 8 and I do not at over 80. Overall I look far more like my father's family.

I'm 74 and feel and look about 65 currently. It varies according to mood and wellness, and yes, recently re-disovered I've got "it" as in "that look" from men, which might come in handy as single but not wanting to stay that way.

However except from my own family, I prefer to talk to older women maybe 50 plus most of all. Wisdom counts, when all is said and done, for me, although gym locker room conversations reveal surprises from every age.