PITFALLS OF GROWING OLD

Several weeks ago, I gained another year. I am now 81. That seems extremely old. Every obituary I read, the person who has passed is in their 80s. When I read my hometown newspaper, I notice more and more of my friends have passed over.

My husband and I celebrated 59 years of marriage. I never thought we would both survive this long. God is good. I pray we live until next February 22 and can say we have been married 60 years.

When my mother hit 90, she was the only one left in her high school class. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. It\’s good she survived, but sad that none of her friends were still alive.

Don\’t misunderstand me. I\’m so thankful that I am still alive and in fairly good health. That brings me to another problem we have as we grow old. Falling.

I\’ve always been a klutz, and with old age, I\’m becoming a larger one. We hear about older adults falling and having brain bleeds, broken bones, and sometimes death. So far. I have been lucky. My biggest thing is bruising.

Last Sunday, I went to the bathroom to shower before church. No big deal, except I fell in the shower. My husband has problems hearing, and he didn\’t hear me for several minutes. Shampoo bottles are good to throw at the door. Finally he came, but with both of us in our 80s, we had a hard time getting me up. To make a long story short, there were no bones broken. I only bruised my back and I\’m going to start therapy this week.

No matter what your age, be careful in the bathroom. I\’ve found it is the worse place in the house for injuries. I\’m being treated for back problems, and the fall didn\’t help. All the warnings you hear are true about falls. This one has put me down for the past week. We\’ve also taken all the little rugs out. They were making me fall.

Be safe as you go through your day. I want to keep my friends around for a while longer.