115 Years of Being Alive

I was reading this article about Edna Parker who died Wednesday at the age of 115. She was declared last year as the oldest living person. I cannot imagine how life would be at the age of 115. According to the article, despite her old age, she still led an active life. In fact, while at the nursing home, according to his grandchild, she could still be seen pushing patients on their wheelchairs. The Governor of Indiana remarked that she must have been a remarkable lady at any age. I cannot imagine how much stored wisdom and experience this old lady has in her. In 115 years, she must have seen how the world around her evolved. Across the spectrum of society - politics, technology, religion - Edna was a witness to the best and worst of the human civilization.

According to the article:

"Parker taught in a two-room school in Shelby County for several years after graduating from Franklin College in 1911. She wed her childhood sweetheart and neighbor in 1913.

But as was the tradition of that era, her teaching career ended with her marriage. Parker traded the schoolhouse for life as a farmer's wife, preparing meals for as many as a dozen men who worked on her husband's farm.

Parker noted with pride last year that she and her husband were one of the first owners of an automobile in their rural area."

Quite frankly, I used to dread the day when I get older and bed-ridden or incapacitated with all the infirmities old age would bring. I relish in my youth and knowing well that in my young age I still have the strength to do anything I wanted, I never let any opportunity pass me by. I wanted to live the life one day at a time, laboring and enjoying the fruits of labor as early as now. How could one enjoy his fruits of labor if he is already too old to even walk around his lot?

But somehow, old age is a matter of perspective. There are people who are biologically young and yet they look so old and so mature, maybe because their perspective in life has changed and has made them who they are now. Perhaps, it doesn't matter really how young or how old one is. What matters is how we respond to life, in whatever age we are.