She shuffled her feet so the wheelchair inched across the room. “May I join you?” The chipper voice didn’t match the frail body, twisted by arthritis.
“You seem like a nice family.” She edged into our group huddled around the wheelchair of our ninety-three-year-old mother.
Wrinkles along the stranger’s clear eyes crinkled as she smiled. “I don’t mean to impose, but can I join you?”
We moved our chairs to accommodate the uninvited guest.
“I have eight children and so many grandchildren that Christmas is like the national debt.” Her smile broadened as we chuckled at her personal introduction. Except for her short permed white hair, she didn’t fit. This lady stirred life with other residents sat blank or with confused minds.
We exchanged pleasantries and learned she and her husband had ranched in a nearby community. Careful to not dominate the conversation, she listened to our stories and shared a few well-rehearsed jokes. When I mentioned I wasn’t good at telling jokes, she confided she wrote down jokes in a notebook in order to recall them.
This lady sparkled. Age had broken her body and taken away her independence, but it had not reduced her spirit. For her, laughter and jokes were serious business.
That afternoon in a nursing home with stale green walls, I witnessed graceful aging. Despite her age, health, and situation, this lady hadn’t withdrawn but sought conversation and connection with those near her, even strangers. She told jokes.
I desire to live upbeat, but more often I see the glass as half-empty, not half-full. How can I be more like this smiling stranger? While I struggle with my negative outlook, Philippians reminds me I can trust God to transform me. I can age with grace because “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” This is a big yahoo!
In her new book The Wonder Years, author Leslie Leyland Fields solicited essays from 40 women over the age of 40 on the topic of aging. The personal stories encourage women that yes! life can remain joy-filled at any age or circumstance.
Fields closed her book with God’s words, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:4) This promise underlines God’s name. Emmanuel–God with us.
So can I live and age more joy-filled? Not by my own effort, but because God is changing me and with me — Yes. And someday, I might even inch forward in a wheelchair and share a joke.
Check out Leslie, one of my favorite authors, at: leslieleylandfields.com She lives in Kodiak, AK and her faith and stories of commercial fishing in the wild seas will mesmerize you. I spent an unforgettable week on a remote island off Kodiak at a writers’ workshop which she hosts each summer.