Growing Old, Graciously

My mother often says that she loves being this age (64), because with age comes the ability to speak your mind. You don’t worry as much about what other people think. She loves to yell at other cars and wave her hands when they are not driving in the manner that she thinks is appropriate.

I secretly yearn for the good ol’ days when she was more reserved and cared about what other’s thought.

The other morning I took her shopping to pick up a few items at the grocery store.

We looked around at the Halloween Candy first and then headed over to where the napkins and lunch bags would be.

She pulled her list out and started to rhyme off other important things that she needed and as we walked through the store. I pushed the cart and kept my eyes open for these things so that with any luck we would be able to navigate from one side of the store to the other, gathering our items along the way and finish at the checkout, without meandering back and forth in a zig zag fashion, as per the usual.

We got to one aisle and stood looking for some Poise (bladder control pads) and as she spotted the right ones and reached up to grab them, a gentleman her age, rounded the corner and glanced to see what she was reaching for.

I started to snigger and stayed well back pretending to be looking for toothpaste.

The man stopped right in front of the toothpaste section and pretended to be looking for something also, but kept an eye on my mother as she deposited the Poise into the basket.

My mother then reached past this man to grab a box of Polident tablets for her dentures and was gushing about how relieved she was to finally remember to buy it as she had run out a couple of weeks ago. I watched as the old guy actually turned to watch her put the Polident in the basket before he started to move away.

I looked at my mom and said, "You know what he’s thinking don’t you?"

"No, I haven’t got a clue, what?"

"Wow, there’s a catch! She’s losing her teeth, wetting her pants and has trouble remembering things, I wonder if I should ask her out?"

My mom then noticed him in the aisle. Apparently, she never paid any attention or didn’t notice him there before, in spite the fact, she had reached almost in front of him for the Polident.

I guess she’s right. It is great to grow old and not care anymore.