loss of youth and vigour

What a fabulous gathering it sounds M0nica!

I think you are right too about our genetic inheritance to a certain extent! My Mum always looked after her skin (Oil of Ulay it was in those days lol!) and her body, and whilst I'm not quite as slim as she was at my age, I think I'm doing ok being a fittish size 10! And my mind is still in it's 20's hahaha!

I've used Oil of Ulay for about 30 years. Wonderful stuff.

I am also feeling sad about loss of vigour,facial wrinkles and greying hair. However I am incredibly thankful to still be here after recovering from serious illness and being resuscitated. I have lived to see my daughter married and birth of 2 gorgeous grandchildren. Life is still very precious although the body has changed the spirit is still young.

I thought I was ageing well until I hit 75. Then.

I miss being told how young for my age I look because suddenly I don't. Recently a young man gave up his seat on the bus for me and I was glad to take it. Got a birthday card which said "You can't turn back the clock but you can keep it ticking". It's all we can do!

I miss the care free days of my youth.
No worries or anxiety.
Hard to believe that my stock phrase was
'Don't Panic!"

I don't totally agree with you Cherrytree59 there were a lot of stresses for me when I was younger, children, finances, job etc. Now I can relax more, children and grandchildren all grown up and doing well. I have time to sit back and enjoy my peaceful contented life.

guess we have all had different lives.. I am 83, and look good for my age, genetic, but energy, I have little,, I have found some good friends at our local church recently, and they sure do help, as I worked full time, studied for professional qualifications, and brought up two boys and a husband, husband still with me,, hard work, no fault of his.

I just miss the prospect of the future! know what I mean?

I have gained a lot of wisdom over the years and wish I knew back then what I know now so wouldn't change all the experiences I've had ...although my body would love to go back.

Beauty is different when we are older. Shine on the inside and people will see it on the outside. I tell people to read Desederata regularly....it is calming

..."you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone" , very true lyric in lots of ways.

I feel exactly the same, old age jumps on you it would seem all at once. You cannot do things, ie walk as far climbing stairs, drink as much alcohol, dance. It is so frustrating. But it doesn’t seem to be the way with everyone. I am 73yrs. But there are people the same age and older than me who do not seem to be affected this way. Or are they?

I'll admit that I was terrified of getting older. To me it was the worst thing that could happen. I felt it more acutely after my kids had flown the nest and I was left alone.

Now I'm actually enjoying my freedom. I'm in my final year of a BA and am even thinking of doing an MA when I've finished that. I'm permanently broke and have the usual aches and pains, but I'm planning for the future again, something I couldn't have imagined a few years ago.

I often think of a couple of my school mates who died in their teens. One lad's parents and sister remember his birthday in the local paper every year. He died of cancer at 14 and never got to travel, have a family or even finish his education. After a couple of near misses, I'm just grateful to still be here.

I'm in no way minimising how you feel, I totally get it. I have dark days sometimes too. Make little plans, take pleasure in the small things.

When I was younger (several millenia ago) an elderly friend of my grandmother said to me that the wrinkles on her face were like a map of her life. They were the journey and not the destination. We all know what the destination is but should enjoy the scenery on the way there.

Hope you're feeling more positive soon. I bet you're doing a lot better than you think you are

I am sure more sunshine is what we all need. The Dr recently said to me 'have you tried The Mediterranean Diet?'(they all seem to go on about the blinking Mediterranean Diet) Yes I have, I eat healthily lots of home grown fruit and veg. but what this lovely old country of ours lacks is the Mediterranean sun!

Looking back I cannot believe I was able to do what I did. A full time job, housework, cooking, shopping etc all the things you do when you have a family and still finding time to have a nights out with friends where as now even thinking about it exhausts me .
Now its shopping on line having it delivered ,feet up when ever I feel like it and a 'night out' with friends has been replaced by 'coffee and cake' mornings.
I do miss the twenty four seven energy I once had but as long as I am able to remember those times the fact I am far from wrinkle free and can no longer party the night away does not bother me.

I never really thought I was all that pretty, so I don't really mourn my youthful looks.

Like others, I would like to be able to work all day at housework or gardening, but those days are long gone.

However, there are advantages: I can do as I please when I please now that I have retired and we are comfortably off.

A great relief after years of penny -pinching.

Still healthy too.

In that old song by Joni Mitchell, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" - true, isn't it?
You can only make the best of what you've got at the time.
I was never Miss World, feeling that others had better hair and prettier features, etc, etc. Now I look back and see that that was as good as it got! It can't have been as bad as I felt at the time.

Not giving up - still going to the gym and trying to get that body. Never pays to lack optimism and believe me I’m having to apply it in droves!

Geranium I agree about the sunshine. My son used to live in California and older people there just don't seem to be old in the way they do in Britain. Many of them were wrinkly, I guess due to that very sunshine we hanker after, but they're vigorous and active and youthful in outlook. It's hard to have that mindset as I look out at today's grey sky and the rain falling in sheets.

Each age has had its ups and downs for me - prominent teeth were finally straightened in my 30's; now, at 64 I can't do as much all in one go - but at least have the freedom to take my time. Each time I hear someone else's story - perhaps of illness or loss- it reminds me to try to make the most of everything as it is now - because it's all I have. If I moan about getting older my 92 year old mother tells me off!

The jobs I used to be able to do and enjoy doing, when I see them building up around me, do get me down.
But generally I don't mind being old and a cripple (tut tut but it's what I call myself).
I was lucky enough to be able-bodied most of my adult life. There are so many children who never enjoy that, yet they are so brave and good natured. I taught in a school for very disabled children for a while. It was so moving what the children went through. The young teenager who was severely dismorphic and just never went out in public, who, when having an operation to move the bones in his head which were growing into his brain, had his optic nerve accidentally severed so he lost the sight of one eye. Did he complain? I never saw him complain once. Yet when I think of him I cry!
No, life's been ok, and this stage is manageable or put-up-withable! I know I get depressed but my problems are nothing really. If the house needs things and I can't do them yet and I can't pay someone else either then what difference does that really make to a life? I still eat, drink, sleep, talk to the dogs, and keep going even if I have to lie down when the pain is a bit much. At least I can lie down! I don't have to go to work! Being retired has compensations!

Gonegirl. That is so clever!! I had no idea you were 75!! I was sure you were still in your 50s and had only just come across from MumsNet! You have a very "fresh" and young outlook imho!

Jaffacake2. So glad to hear you recovered to see your family expand! You are so right - it isn't looks or even energy and vigorous, it's the spirit within that matters! So glad to hear that yours is doing really well - long may it last! ?

ooooogh the spell corrector thingy - not "energy and vigorous". but energy and vigor
sorry I don't see them before they get stuck in the everlasting stone of the thread - eyes not very good at the screen glare.

Reading the original post about the young woman leaping about I could just picture her but while I was slim when young I certainly didnt leap about. I have always been told I dont look my age and even the oncologist says I must have looked after myself because he would never have thought I am 75. But it hasnt stopped the big C coming back as metasteses on my spine 23 years after grade 1 breast cancer. Having weekly chemotherapy is certainly pulling me down and looking in the bathroom mirror just now could hardly recognise my bloated face and the rapidly thinning hair. Add the nausea and yes my get up and go has certainly got up and went. It would be nice to be able to think it will come back again but there is no cure for this it can only be treated. So I can only hope.