Seeing Old Age as a Never-Ending Adventure

[groovedaddy]

OCALA, Fla. — Ilse Telesmanich, 90, sprained her ankle hiking in South Africa last August. She tried to keep going on the three-week trip, she said, hobbled as she was. “I got very good at hopping on one foot the last time I sprained it,” she said.

But the guides had unfortunately failed to bring along any crutches — let alone walkers. So Ms. Telesmanich cut the trip short, but she is planning on leaving her home here in central Florida this summer to complete what she started.

Tom Lackey, 89, also continued to embrace adventure late into life, in his case as a way past the grief of losing his wife to a heart attack 10 years ago.

Mr. Lackey took up wing-walking. Last summer, he strapped his feet to the top of a single-engine biplane, like the daredevils of aviation’s early days, and flew across the English Channel at 160 miles per hour — with nothing between him and the wild blue yonder but goggles and layers of clothing to fight the wind-chill.

“My family thinks I’m mad,” Mr. Lackey said in a telephone interview discussing the flight — his 20th wing-walk. “I probably am.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/08aging.html?th&emc=th

[Teaser]

1. "Never-Ending Adventure"

not quite accurate.

[iamtechus]

2. More like a medical merry-go-round. nt

[T Wolf]

3. Another take on old age - one that made me say, "WTF?"

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Souderton, PA: 80-Year-Old Montco Man Charged with Strangling Wife of 60 Years
by KYW's Brad Segall

An elderly Montgomery County man is behind bars, held without bail, accused of killing his wife of 60 years after accusing her of cheating of him.

http://domesticviolencenews.blogspot.com/2010/01/souderton-pa-80-year-old-montco-man.html

Sad. Very sad. But also stunningly shocking.

[murray hill farm]

4. Old age is the best...

that is why they saved it for last! I am about to turn 69 and while I have always said the year that I turned was the best one yet...that was before I made it past 60 and learned that these years are really the best of all. My family has always thought me a bit odd...and a good number have completely disowned me for my ways...ha! Last year I moved on my own to the boonies of Arkansas to start my own small farm and live in a home so small that I am sure the general consensus is that I have gone off the senility edge.LOL! I love my life...and every day is a happy adventure. It is beyond me that old friends continue to live in condos or their huge homes alone..are lonely, live on antidepressants and are still so unhappy, but stay as they are in the same place just putting in their time, breathing in and out alone. There is so much to life at this age. The adventures above are pretty extreme though..even so, I say go for it. Live every day completely.

[newfie11]

5. I have 2 sisters that live as you described

in condos with no interests. They moved to Fla many years ago but have no friends and have no fun.
They think my husband and I are crazy for showing our dogs and traveling so much. In fact I would love to move to Europe.

My husband is 73 and I am 63.

I will never understand their logic but to each his own.

[murray hill farm]

6. Hey...I love that you live your lives so fully!

It is the best, isn't it! I have come to the conclusion that it really is difficult to impossible for folks like your sisters or most of my family or friends that I have known most of my life to comprehend how we live our lives. I think we just make them very uncomfortable and perhaps even nervous because we don't fit into the prescribed box of life behaviors that they have subscribed to..especially the "old age" box of life behaviors. They will never understand! Ha! They think there is something wrong with us, etc. They don't see what they are missing at all. When one tries to talk to me about what is wrong with me or such, I now just say "you don't need to understand me, just let me be to enjoy my life because I am enjoying it very much". Congratulations on shunning the box...and living your lives so completely.