Age/Books

I am currently reading The Brimstone Wedding by the late Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell. It was published when Vine/Rendell was 65.

What bothers me is how old people are treated in the book. Old seems to be defined as those in their 70s+.

Because it is set in a residence of the elderly, that some are suffering from life-ending illnesses does make sense.

My problem?

I am 76 and 3/4s. I am nowhere near the doddering characters in the book.

Yes, I have had classmates that died at various ages some of whose death include dementia, heart attacks, cancer. I am a two-time cancer survivor. Both times were a glitch that needed to be overcome. Had I not been successful, perhaps, I would be a bit more like the characters in the book.

But, and it is a big but, my life is no where close to be future-less. We have trips planned to Stockholm, Edinburgh, Boston in the next few months. We travel between our homes in Switzerland and France where we participate in life at many levels. I have books still to write, still to publish.

My husband is younger than I am. He is of the troisème age as the French describe our stage of life. Not only is he still working in his chosen career by choice with new sought-after challenges, but he's trying a new phase of his loved golf and has tournaments to play.

I have friends in my age group who have taken on a new love relationship with gusto. Others are traveling the world. They participate in as many activities as the human species can imagine. They are learning, living, loving.

Maybe someday, I too, will end up in a residence home, terribly diminished. I've made my husband promise that he will see I am dressed each day in co-ordinated underwear and pretty clothes, although jeans, sweater and scarf (colored to pull the other colors I might be wearing together) will do.

I picture myself doing wheelies down the corridors, organizing a mutiny among other residents for better food, sneaking out to make mischief somewhere. If bedridden, I hope to continue to write, send emails and read for as long as I can. Only after that is impossible to accomplish, I will I succumb to being like the characters in the book.