I sat jam packed on my flight home from San Francisco yesterday. There were no upgrades to be had, no business perks to be taken advantage of. I was in the back with everyone else. Where all the interesting people are.
And I was seated next to an amazing elderly couple. They were among the last to board, and appeared to have no concern with the fact that the flight attendants wanted to scurry them along. They took their sweet time settling in, but accepted the offer of help when I offered it.
And as we chatted before takeoff, I feel in love with this dynamic duo. I learned that they were on their way home from Hawaii; their twenty second trip there. They had been married for just as long, and been there on their honeymoon. They have returned every year since. I love that they found love in their seventies, and still found the romance to visit their favorite place together every winter.
He is now 93 years old, and has Parkinson’s. He is finding it harder to move, and she is clearly at his ready. And as she whipped out her flip phone and address book to call their car service to inform them of their changed flight plans, I thought to myself, “I love this couple.”
I sat through the flight watching him read his Kindle with the largest possible font. I watched her play Solitare on her iPad mini and mumble "s*it" every time she made a bad move. They snacked on peanut M&Ms and Oreos, because as she confided in me, “I don’t worry about what I look like in a bathing suit now!” She appeared to have a magic bag under her seat from which she kept producing goodies to entertain them, or to comfort him. His health is clearly failing.
I didn’t ask, but I assume they had both been married before. Somehow, they found each other in their seventies. As they enter the final stages of their lives, they are every bit each other’s companions. And somehow, well into there 90’s, they have managed to keep the romance and adventure alive in their lives.
Age is inevitable. I have begun to embrace the grey hair and wrinkles that now stare me back in the mirror as signs of a life well lived; not that I’m just getting old. And when I see videos of older women dancing, or sit next to a couple like this still traveling and enjoying their lives together until the end, it makes me smile.
My youth is behind me, but I have to believe my best years are still in front of me. And I will take a lesson from my elderly friends in Row 29. You just need to make the most of it for as long as you possibly can.
No comments:
Post a Comment