75 going on 40

Heres another thought -- old age is a poor reward for a life times work ?

I have just received news --that the children (2) of mature age; had not bothered to share their Christmas with their mum, in family home ;
but worst still- she having been diagnosed with cancer in November, and very down, under going chemo; spent alone just her and hubby;
unfortunately she lives the other side of this globe to me, so was unable to visit. I find this so sad!

a lot of grans today dont look like grans and i do think its because older people are now working in their later years and we live in a fadt paced world now....when i say dont look like a gran i was thinking of how my gran looked when i was a child...i remember her as a plump lady with white hair tied back in a bun...she always wore a wrap over apron...when she went out she always wore a hat with a hatpin ( such lovely memories

im 53 and disabled and cant do what i should be doing at any age or like Diana (waiting for god )tv programme i wont say how many years ago that was, but inside i think im 25, with a teenage 15 year old daughter you have to have a young mind with what she comes out with otherwise i thinlk i would have had a heart attack along time ago

... round here the description is 'pensioner'. To which I often wonder, how do they know that because someone is, say, 70, they receive a pension. Not everybody does.

Thanks, Lona and dusty. I wasn't 'fishing', honestly!

Too right, FlicketyB - my chronological age is 74, but, like you, I feel no particular age. I really think the problem comes from outside - certainly the media. I know very well that if I should have the misfortune to be involved on a road accident, the local rag would have screaming headlines 'OAP run over ....." Or whatever. I loath that term OAP with a passion. I think that I and others of my generation have somehow missed the boat. When I was in my teens and early 20s (late '50s and early '60s), gravitas was everything - the older you were, the more likely you were to be listened to and respected (the politicians in that era, for instance, although perhaps respected is a step too far!) therefore I was too young to make any worthwhile comment. Now I am too old to make any worthwhile comment and the politicians seem to have an average age of 12. (OK, I jest, but considerably younger than my heyday.). The 12-year old in the Bank the other day when I gave her my DOB (1939) remarked in an amazed tone that I "looked so well." Now I realise that all of us in our 70s are all supposed to look frail and poorly .........

MaryXYX Go for it!

Like Nonu and others I look in the mirror and think I look pretty good all things considered.



Then I put my glasses on.

I have just tried to read her blog (not the bit on Gransnet, the main one) - and gave up, it is unreadable. She sounds like everybody's stereotype of an old woman. The thought that I may sound and read like that in 5 years, is enough to drive me to an early demise. I will start drinking now.

Except of course I will not, because I will remember my mother, young and giggly, wearing lacy underwear, always elegantly dressed and parting until her death at 85. Described by a friend as 'like champagne, when she came into the room everybody sparkled'

The 80 year olds we have met on holidays to Jordan and Central Asia and Egypt. Another 70 year old, still tall smooth and handsome and jetting all over Europe because he is a hot shot in a number of international organisations.

I accept that this lady has some physical disabilities - but then so do quite a number of 40 year olds. A disability slows one's mad gallop at any age.

As I said earlier I am who I am. Chronologically I am 70, mentally I am no particular age at all. I am just myself.

anno You're not going anywhere yet, we need you on here!

Anno

I'd rather be 73 than the alternative. My mum died at this age, exactly 31 years ago today.

I live in a retirement flat. As I always have to explain: that's not a retirement home with staff to look after the old folks, it's a block of flats for older people. I don't integrate well with the other residents as the favourite activity is to drink tea and complain about the aches and pains. And gossip about the black sheep of the flats (that's me).

Since I stopped work I have joined several groups and volunteer for a couple of charities. I reckon I'm behaving quite a bit younger than my real age. I had a very conventional life - most of it - and went on my first protest march and took part in my first demo last year.

Does anyone say I really ought to be sitting with my knitting and complaining?

Oh sugar rockgran!

You are a spring chicken.

Actually I feel older now that I am on Gransnet. I'm nearly 64 and thought nothing of it until I looked at all these discussion about aging. Now I realise I am getting old! Moi?
I'm with Nonu - I look in the mirror and think "not too shabby" then forget about it. My husband is a young 70 and thinks I'm just a kid.

Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders at the time Groovy Kind of Love came out, Kitty, though what became of Wayne, I have no idea.
The song was one of my favourites <comes over all nostalgic thinking about first boyfriend etc>

That was it! Knew I'd heard it before

It was the Mindbenders Galen covered by Phil Collins and no doubt many others.

Galen think it was 'Groovy Kind of Love'. But can't for the life of me remember by whom. I'll be back.

but how do you know you feel younger than your years if youve never been 75 before!!! such a ridiculous comment to make......a lot of us are young at heart and its got nothing to do with age just our outlook on life in general...

Seemed a load of meaningless tosh to me. She certainly seems less alert, sparky and intelligent than my Mum did at 75.

This is just one more example of stuff that has been and is still being discussed on GN – that is, being in some way younger than your years as if there is some failure, weakness or illness in growing older year by year.

I have to disagree. I love her blogs and her style of writing but chacun a son gout as they say.

Well having read some other bits of her blog, I have to apologise and say I think you are right, she is 75.
I'm also going to say that I find the blog, and her literary style, very tedious.
<sniff>

She speaks of "40-year-old spirit in a body that has been ticking over for 75" which I take to mean that she is chronologically 75 but in her head she's 40. I am two years younger than she is, and, although time is gradually taking its toll physically, I feel pleased to be more mature mentally than I was at 40.

Ah now looking again I think she is 75. and baffled.