What Do You Fight As You Age?

Rachel Hill was a temporary replacement Aide for youthful ninety-one year old Theresa Hinds.

Everything about her was amazing.

“How do you manage to be ninety-one but look, think, behave and be so youthful and happy,” Rachel questioned on her third day while she served her lunch.

Wiping her mouth as spaghetti sauce dripped down her chin, she asked, easing forward, “what kind of child were you?”

Caught off guard by her question, Rachel eases back into her childhood and said, “one who wished she could go back to change everything!”

“That bad?’ Theresa said smiling at her chewing a piece of her chicken breast parmesan.

Swaying her head from left to right, Rachel smiled saying, “I am learning to be better, and I pray I am like you as I age. You are happy, healthy, beautiful, full of life and damn positive too. I look forward to coming to work for the next three weeks.”

“You don’t enjoy going to your other cases?” she asked curiosity on her face.

Sending her memory back to the many cases she had to walk away from in the past, “most of them made getting old feel like punishment. Regrets are painted on the walls in their homes and in their hearts. Everywhere I turn sadness and regrets greets me. Many are unhappy with everything they can think of and some things they can’t. It’s depressing going into many of them homes.”

“Well, you have more than two weeks of enjoyment left,” Theresa said smiling.

After cleaning up, Rachel joined her in playing cards.

“How can you be so happy all of the time?” Rachel asked shuffling the deck of cards.

“I was a disobedient teenager, who stayed away from all the good things. My name was the first name called when something goes wrong in my home, classroom, community and church,” Theresa explained with a twinkle in her eyes. “I was banned or forbidden from everything my community keeps. Fairs, animal shows, everything.”

Rachel’s eyes popped, “What transformed you into Mother Theresa?” slipped past Rachel’s brain and shot through her mouth as she deals the cards.

Giggling like a schoolgirl, Theresa asked taking up her cards, “how did you know I was kind of converted?”

“Well, your name for one,” Rachel replied taking all her cards up. “And living a reckless life will shorten it.”

Theresa stared at her in a serious way, then said as memories of her grandmother seeped into her thoughts, “I did three days in jail for shoplifting three months after my eighteenth birthday. My mother told me to find somewhere else to live after I did my time. No family wanted to help me.”

“But shoplifting isn’t that serious of a charge. Murder, now that is something to be ashamed about,” Rachel said putting her cards in order.

“In those days, going to jail was a disgraceful act,” Theresa said, reading the hand.

“Wow,” Rachel said reading her hand. “Now if you haven’t been to jail you aren’t normal.”

Theresa grinned, that said, “My renegade grandmother on my father’s side took me in and warned, ‘it’s good to enjoy your life when you are young but do it in a way that when you get old, you don’t have to be fighting aging, health issues and your past at the same time.’”

“Damn!” Rachel said dropping her hand of cards on the table. “That’s what all my cases have been fighting! All three of them. But it seems so easy for you.”

“That isn’t easy child. Life is already a fight for many of us. Living without regrets isn’t an easy task,” she said reading her hand with furled brows.

“So that’s why you are so happy and look so good. You live a life that when you get older you only fight aging,” Rachel asked in shock.

“I am fighting nothing child,” Theresa states. “Aging is a part of life. I am enjoying what I have left without regrets, but with gratitude for life, health and living.”

“Can I come and visit you sometime?” Rachel asked. “I need to know how to live my life without fighting aging, health issues and regrets.”

“Aren’t you too young for all of them,” Theresa asked.

“Isn’t that the best time to start?” putting her hand on the table, Rachel said. “Gin.”

Aging seems to be a pain for many of the elderly that I know. As we age, we do fight aging, health issues, and regrets. But what if we can live a life where we won’t have to be fighting, but just living with gratitude?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it.