My oldest son sent me a list of humorous sayings about
growing old. “I’m retired-I was tired yesterday and I am
tired again today.” “I’m not old, I’m chronologically gifted.” Or my personal
favorite: “I’m so
old I don’t buy green bananas anymore.”
High school students were challenged to dress as senior
adults. Of course, they came to school
in hospital gowns, on walkers, and in wheelchairs. Unfortunately, for some
senior adults with failing health that is the reality. For many with relatively
good health the post retirement years can be the best years of all. I like to
call those of us who fit that category: Semi-Seniors.
With more people than ever living to see their 90th
birthday, what do we do with the extra 25 years we have been given post
retirement? Some may choose a new hobby
or volunteer activity. Others decide to
take a risk and embark on a second career. At age 65, my late bloomer husband,
Charles, and I formed our company, Consulting Aviation Services. He patented
two inventions to change the flying characteristics of aircraft and during the
past ten years, we have been testing those devices in wind tunnels and on
various airplanes. Before the summer is
over, we will travel to California to visit the Mojave Desert for an Air Force
flight test and back to Maryland for more wind tunnel testing. I often ask
myself what else could we be doing with these later years of our lives?
Aerospace engineering is Charles life’s work. His story of success and failure and
perseverance in spite of challenging circumstances and motivated by his faith
in God needs to be told. My interest in writing and his life’s work are about
to merge as I start writing his memoir with the working title “Reaching for the
Sky.” I will start the first draft of his book in a nice cool hotel room while
he is hard at work in the desert heat at the Air Force base. His story will be
a good companion to my memoir, “Born Three Times.”
Oliver Wendall Holmes is attributed with the quote: “Most of us go to
our grave with our music still inside of us.” It is a balancing act to grow old gracefully,
but not fall into the stereotypes that others—even our own children—ascribe to
us. It is much more difficult to
challenge ourselves to take bold steps to make the last years of our lives the
most interesting and meaningful of all. 