75 going on 40

I never think of myself as being old, my birth certificate says I am 70 this year. There are many things I cannot do but there has always been things I cant do. This year I am buying myself a Kayak and a wetsuit for no other reason than I want one.

ive never really thought about being old (im 66) until i made enquiries into downsizing my council property and they want me to go into sheltered!!!! no way !!!!

I was feeling old until this week when I had to spend three days in a nursing home where all the other residents suffered from senile dementia!
Disabled as I am, and (Oxford comma) 70 next birthday, I now realise how well I'm doing.
At least I (think) am mentally alert.

newist LOL.

dollie - how dare they! At 66? What a cheek.

Some years ago, when my son and his wife were thinking about moving house, they asked if I would like to chip in and have a granny flat. I thought I wasn't ready for it then. Now I'm not so sure that I made the right decision, but they did buy a really lovely family home where I am always welcome.

Galen Being elderly is a state of mind. Being mentally alert and having an open and adventurous mind is what is important in staying young. Whatever an aging body might stop us doing.

I am sure most 70 yr old's now are more, informal, irreverent and feisty now than they were when I was in my teens in the 60s.

Galen you have always inspired me. You go on holidays on your own, you still work, your wit and humour to me is inspirational

I am who (or should it be whom) I am. Age is irrelevant.

I only keep going because of all the help and encouragement I get from my GN friends!
DD asked me yesterday if I was glad she'd told me me about GN?
I told her that it has been a lifesaver, I was getting so lonely and feeling so down.
Now if I feel blue
All I have to do
Is think of all of you
Then I don't feel blue

I seem to remember a song from my youth with those sort of words.

Oh newist I love that! Think I need a kayak too! (Not sure about the wetsuit though...)

Was discussing this at a party over Christmas with one of my young neighbours - he said that now he is almost 25 he should think about growing up. Told him I am almost 64 and I have no intention of growing up yet! I can't understand why when I look in the mirror the person looking back at me is all wrinkly when inside I feel about 30.

Believe it or not , I look in the mirror & think WOW , you are lookin" good girlfriend ! Every single time !
I just do not dwell at all on anything that might be going South , can"t do anything about it & I think it is reflected in my attitude to the world !
lots of them .

I am pleased you joined Galen, you brighten my day

You are all missing the point, I think.
At the bottom of the blog, it says:
Liz Mountford is not a Yummy-Mummy, nor a Zimmer-Frame Clubber; but a 40-year-old single woman in a 75-year-old body. Read more on her blog and let us know your thoughts on the thread.

I took this to mean that she has a medical syndrome which results in premature ageing.
I think it's very courageous of her to write the blog, especially with a complete lack of self-pity.

Yes I noticed this too janeainsworth.

Jane she's 75!

So did I, but then I wondered if I had interpreted it wrongly.

If she is indeed chronologically 40, then it is not surprising that she does not like having the body of a 75-year-old. Even a healthy 75-year-old body is had nearly twice the usage of a 40-year-old one.

I read the bit linked to and didn't get that impresssion, jane. Just read some more. I think she is seventy-five. I didn't comment earlier because I found it rather a tedious read. It's sooo "the thing to say". Yuck.

To be perfectly honest, I'm tired of hearing that sort of phrase: "n in my head but in an n-aged body" where the second n is a larger integer than the first. If I still felt, say, thirty in my fifty-eight year old body, I'd be ashamed of myself. You can learn a lot and experience a lot and develop a lot (wisdom even!) in twenty-eight (or however many) years. Dismissing that as somehow not really you because you still feel the same as you did n years ago (where n is a large postive integer) is tosh and silly in my view.

There is nothing wrong with Growing Up. It doesn't have to make one a predictable bore saying whatever is fashionable and 'cool'.

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

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.

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>

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

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.