COMMENT
"You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing." George Bernard Shaw
Ageing is not for the faint-hearted, my friend says to me, when I am complaining about an ache here and pain there. A few weeks ago I spoke to a surgeon and last week to an anaesthetist and, for the first time, I realised I had a list of things they needed to know about my health. They read my notes and started asking questions. As I answered, I realised it was now a long list.
I was conceived in 1951 during the "wharfies" strike in Wellington. Yes, my dad was a sailor, and my mum a "clippie", a young woman who worked on the trams clipping the tickets. So, in nine months' time, I will have been around for three score and 10 years. In terms of health, things have sort of crept up on me. I wish time hadn't gone so fast, I wish I'd enjoyed it more on the way and worried less about life. Yet I have no bucket list, I have done all the things I wanted to do.
My Angels say that being young has its advantages, they also say that living to old age is the true declaration of worth. Living a long life is how we recognise our character, which is memorable for the small things we have done, as well as the big ones.
