Seems like old age lasts a long time; far longer than I expected. All the stuff about keeping busy, keeping active, keeping fit, seems to gradually fall apart. And our friends: the ones we couldn’t do without, fade away. Sometimes our children leave before us.

We’re not the competent ones anymore, not the “go to” guys, the ones who could solve any problem; hell sometimes we can’t even tie our own shoes.

To make matters worse, if we can still walk on the street, we need to keep a smile on our face and try to maintain the myth that “the best is yet to come”, that “retirement is a blessing”, that we are now free to do what we want.

But in truth: “I’d give all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday”.

The Vashon Senior Center is a tiny oasis, on a tiny island, where seniors meet other seniors just to be together. We all know the hard truth about aging and dying. We don’t come here to complain: “it is what it is!”

And today John made it, and Carl made it, and Luella made it, and Keith made it, and I made it. We talk and laugh and sing together. And we love/tolerate/endure 🙂 each other one more time. That’s about as good as it gets! Maybe the myth is true.

— Lawrence Dean