Staying young

Yesterday was my Mum's eightieth birthday, and whilst this is a great milestone, she is still very young at heart. From my earliest childhood, I remember my Nan as an old lady, yet she was probably only in her sixties. I will be sixty this year, but I certainly don't think of myself as old, in my head I'm still in my thirties! I know that years ago although peoples lives were not full of the modern stresses that we live with nowadays, their lives were much harder than ours. Most of them had lived through two wars and had lost loved ones, and they physically worked harder and had much less leisure time than we do. They were old at a much younger age, and I think they resigned themselves to old age much more readily than we do. My Mum on the other hand is not old. Yes she is old in years, but she still acts as she always did. She has kept up with technology, she has a mobile phone and regularly texts, she has a laptop which she uses daily... she sends emails and has recently joined facebook! She already has more friends than me! I think that keeping active in both mind and body is the key to staying young... 'Use it, or lose it', and of course good genes help you to keep looking young, and my Mum has been blessed with these. I hope I look as good at eighty as she does!

I don't think older generation are appreciated as they once were, everything now is about youth, but we need the knowledge and experience that comes with age. We need to talk to them more, ask them questions and maybe get them to write about their lives, before all that history is lost. I got my Mum to do this a few years ago. You'd be surprised at what interesting reading it will make. The world is changing so quickly, perhaps this is something we should all do for our children and grandchildren. 

To celebrate her birthday, my Mum organised her own party on Sunday afternoon, to which over seventy family and friends were invited. My Sister, Brother and I sorted the food, but my Mum made her own Birthday Cake! One of my cousins even traveled down from Birmingham just for the occasion. The Birthday girl had a great time and we presented her with her gift - a new laptop!

Mum and my Brother at her party, I think you'll agree that she looks pretty good for an eighty year old!