A reader writes in
By Toni Rich Eisenstein of Margate
Octogenarians, people living eight plus decades, can accomplish much more if they don’t self-limit activities just because of a few numbers. (A few too many?) Many years ago, there was a popular TV show called “Life Begins at 80.” I now fall into that category.
I was 85 years old when the Pandemic came upon us. Many of us, especially those in our older phase of life, found the pandemic extremely intrusive to our lives. I fall into that category.
Social interaction became discouraged and I was furloughed from my volunteer position for Hospice. I had been visiting those under Hospice care periodically; to allow the chief caregiver to catch up with friends, or run errands; thus affording them a break from their responsibility.
Halfway through this ordeal…for want of a better word…a proverbial light went off in my head. I jogged my memory and finished two books that I had began writing quite a while ago. They are now both published and available through Amazon and/or Barnes and Noble.
“Babyless Boomers” is about infertile couples that achieve the role of Mommy and Daddy with an assist. A school nurse and a lawyer partner up to match the coloring and/or ethnicity of the couple desiring to fill their empty nest. This eventually became problematic when the legality of this assist (to once again use sports terminology) was questioned. The lawyer and the nurse were both reprimanded…and penalized.
The other novel, “Justice Served,” involved a huge fire in which the mother of triplets, a heroine, died. She went back into the blazing building after ascertaining her children’s safety: thus making them orphans. Two of the adoptions were open with one being closed. It became imperative to find the identity of the missing triplet when a murder was committed.
Most of us set limitations upon what we can and cannot do as we age. I always felt that age was not necessarily a precursor to avoiding activities. Some have proverbial stop signs in their heads and self-limit what they can do after a certain period in their lives. I don’t necessarily mean activities that are out of the realm of safety.
What is the saying about an object at rest? Well, in my opinion, a mind at rest also snoozes. Ambition, as well as our adventures, become self-limiting. Travel is another thing that some folks limit due to age. I admit that I haven’t traveled for a while but the pandemic interfered with that aspect of my life in particular. After my husband’s death, I went to places that we didn’t get to do together…Mt. Rushmore, Japan, China. I believe that travel is one of the best forms of education.
