Life For The 'Elderly At Risk'

To all my lady-friends out there, black, white, Asian, non-binary, etc. (who are in your 70's 80's and 90's): did we ever think we could dream up a life where we would be quarantined in our houses for months at a time?

Where we would not only be dealing with a pandemic, but a movement that could change all of our lives forever for the better? Those of us at this stage in our lives count every day as precious. And while at first we might have thought that we were losing these days, I think the end result is that we might have learned a great deal and thought about how we'd like to continue our lives. It's given us room to think about our future.

Every night on television, they call us 'the elderly.” I'm smack in the middle at 85 (about to turn 86) and don't feel elderly yet (maybe some days). At first, when we were quarantined and all the horrible news kept coming, I was scared to death. I kept thinking, 'Oh my God. At my age, and with cancer and a compromised immune system, I'm sure to get it.” I panicked. I think all of us, in this age bracket, think to ourselves 'we are so vulnerable, we are at risk, and we are ‘the elderly.'” But by the end of the second week, I realized that I could pretty much still do everything that I did before the quarantine started. The only difference is that now I wear a mask. I still do my walking, I still draw, and I still write…which is what my life was before and is now.

But I do miss my family, terribly, as I'm sure all of us do. Thank God we live in a time of Zoom, Face-time, and Telemedicine. We can see our grandchildren, talk to our friends, and even our doctors. I think what goes through our minds, at this age, is that these may be our last years and so it makes it harder for us to grab-hold of the idea that we might have made it through cancer, diabetes, heart problems, and yet this virus came out of nowhere to snuff out lives. I think when you're 40, 50, or 60 you feel invincible and feel as though nothing can take you down. But during this stage of life, we are very careful anyway, not to fall, to stay out of harms way, and because none of that can help here, this is doubly scary to us.

I want to tell all my women friends out there who are at such great 'risk” not to forget that we are still tough; we are still able to keep ourselves mentally strong and ride through this. When this is all over, please God may that be soon, we will no longer be 'the elderly at risk,” we shall return to doing whatever it is we do–and do well…whether it's being a Nana, a Mother, a philanthropist, a wife, politician, entrepreneur, writer or artist. I don't want us to think that this is our last 'hoorah.”

As usual, I just want this to be a blip in the road. I think we are going to come out into a kinder world. One where we will not only love our first responders, but love our neighbors, friends, family and appreciate every kind gesture that is done for us. We will want to look for ways to help others. I don't think we will come out to the same world that we knew, where we took a lot of things for granted, and that's a good thing. You can feel the patriotism, the need for friendship and the love of people in the air.

I'm looking forward to the life that's going to be shown to us and that we are going to partake in, through many acts of kindness. So buck up, my sisters in aging. Let's cook our new dishes, send for takeout, social distance with our friends, and look forward to the quarantine lessening, and our world opening slowly in the near future to a new, sweeter life.

Women, at our age, have many mountains yet to climb. Large or small, we will climb them!