Celebrating Not Just a Long but a Well-Lived Life

“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.”

~George Burns

I’m writing this as I’m sitting at the airport waiting to go west for my aunt’s 100th birthday.

She is the second relative to hit that magic number. My great-grandmother made it to 104.

These two women are my role models.

Not just because they managed to live at least a century. But because of what they lived through to get there.

My great-grandmother lived through two World Wars and the Great Depression. She buried a husband, two sons, a grandson, and a great grandson. But she persisted.

She was tarring her roof at age 86. Granted it was small and relatively flat, but still.

My aunt has had her own share of tragedy. Her mother died in childbirth with her, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother and aunt. (My great grandmother didn’t believe my grandfather or his second wife—my grandmother—should raise her.)

She lived through World War II. She divorced her first husband, who served in Korea. Outlived her second. And lost one of her sons in a traffic accident.

My other cousin made her stop downhill skiing when she was 86. But there she was, at 92, dancing into the wee hours of the morning at her granddaughter’s wedding in Chile.

I didn’t spend much time with either of them but the time I did was memorable. Not because of what we did but because of how they lived.

They might have gotten down, but they never gave up.

They never saw themselves as victims. It was just life.

They changed what they could and managed through the rest.

Most of my family has lived into their 80s. Which means I probably have a lot of life left myself.

The challenge is what to do with it.

Luckily, I’ve got great examples.