For Whoever Needs It!

 

I don't recall where I got this from... ;)

Packing Up Christmas

 

Bedroom - Kitchen - Living Room

It hit me this morning that a whole month has gone by since Christmas, and as I had no special plans for the day, and the Great Outdoors was not looking very inviting (just grey and cold), I decided that it might be a good day to say thanks and goodbye (for this season) to the electric candle holders and stars in my windows; and put my regular window lamps back up instead. This has always been a job that takes some time - and now at age 70, it seems to have expanded to fill "a whole day". (How on earth back in a distant past I ever managed a full time job + a fairly active social life besides all the to-do's at home has long seemed a mystery!) 

 

I'm keeping some red textiles (table runners etc) for a while longer (as it's still very much winter here); and ended up moving the big poinsettia from the living room window to the kitchen to match the red ribbons around the curtains, and kind of make up for the "loss" of the red wooden candle holder. In the living room I'm also keeping some battery candles, as it still gets dark early and the evenings are long. 

 

 

I asked Google for some quotes about "old age and time": 

 

"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. 
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." 
— Mark Twain 

 

 "It's important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle." 
— Unknown 

  

 "You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely." 
— Unknown

 

 "To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am." 
— Francis Bacon

 

 

The Autumn of Life

 

We had another sunny September weekend - and probably a last farewell to what has felt like an unusually prolonged summer - starting already at the beginning of May, and lasting almost through September.

 

Now it seems autumn has started to take over, though. Raining today; and all at once, it feels a lot more autumn-like...

On my Sunday walk across the old cemetery, I happened to meet an older woman with a rollator walker (with a seat). She stopped and asked me the time, saying she had forgotten her watch at home. As I had remembered mine,  I could oblige. (Besides,  I also had my mobile/cell phone.)

However, after that she kept on talking... And as I was in no hurry, I remained to listen for a while. In the course of the conversation I learned that she was a widow since some years back, still living on her own in a flat somewhere nearby, spending a lot of time just waiting for home care staff (who never seemed to come on time), had applied for a place at some assisted living or nursing home and had been waiting a long time for that - but had also recently turned down an offer of such a place in a part of town with which she wasn't familiar, as she really wanted to be in the town centre. She had used to go and have lunch at a restaurant at some such place there sometimes; but was no longer able to walk there, as it was too far away for her now. She missed her husband; and all her old friends were gone (dead) too. She had a twin sister (alive but living somewhere else, was my impression) but did not get along with her (waste-of-space) brother-in-law, and never had... One thing upon another; and on the whole she came across as rather tired of life. (In spite of which, she had got herself out for a walk, all by herself, though, and did also seem to have spark enough to get upset about things.) As for me, she kept referring to me as "young"... Not really feeling all that young myself any more (at 69), I did finally ask her straight out how old she was, and it turned out she was 92 (born 1932). I.e. of the same generation as my parents, born 30/31, and gone since 15 vs 13 years now. So of course "entitled" to feel old and tired... and one might think that at that age just wanting to move to a care home of some kind should really be reason enough, But I do know that there are not nearly enough such places, and thus also queues... I do hope she won't have to wait much longer for a place somewhere where she'll feel less lonely. 

(For my own part, I came away from that meeting feeling unusually young and fit...)