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| Ron the Octogenarian |
Today I begin my 83rd year on this planet.
Who would have ever thought I would reach the grand old age of 82 years old?
I am an octogenarian. That means I'm between 80 and 89 years of age.
So how do I feel about being an OLD MAN? Not any different from when I was 81 years old. A LOT different when I was 22 years old.
For one thing my whole body didn't ache when I was 22y years old.
I had loads of energy. Almost inexhaustible energy!
I could walk for miles and not feel a thing except exhilarated. Now I can hardly walk. I don't have the energy.
If you would have asked me when I was 22 years old I would have told you with complete confidence that I wouldn't live past 60 years old.
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| A much younger me from 1969 at a bowling banquet. I'm the one in the blue seersucker suit on the far right. The woman with the cigarette was a co-worker of mine. This is one of the few photos of me that wasn't posed. These are the best photos of anyone, the spontaneous unposed photos. Unfortunately, I don't have too many of them. In my mind this is the way I think I look. Then I look in the mirror now and I am always shocked. What happened to me? Oh well, I feel very lucky to have made it this far. Now to see what I look like when I'm 90! |
Oh for sure, I've had a couple of close calls. At seventeen I developed an infection from surgery which they (the doctors) didn't expect me to survive. In and out of the hospital for six months in the summer of 1959, I fooled them all and survived.
Over the years I've been in a couple auto accidents but survived uninjured.
In 1980 I almost lost my life when someone tried to strangle me. That was one time I thought I was checking out for sure. But I survived, barely.
Then there was the time I had a gun pulled on me by two muggers on 22nd Street in Philadelphia one Saturday night in the late 1970's when I was headed out to the local bar for a night of adventure. They demanded my money or they were going "to take my life." No way was I going to give them money (I only had three one dollar bills in my back rear pocket anyway). We had a standoff for a few seconds while they demanded my "money or your life." I figured if they were going to shoot me they would have to do it with witnesses so I ran away from them into the traffic on 22nd Street. They didn't shoot. I survived again.
I can related more such instances but you get the idea. I have been spared from an early departure from this life for several reasons, I think. Yes, I do think your lives are preordained.
My purpose now it to take care of Bill until he makes his peaceful transition from this life to wherever one goes when one dies.
Then my purpose to live out my days with Pat. We take care of one another. Without Pat I have no one and he is in the same situation. We were meant for each other. That's why I think we met ten years ago. Our journey was preordained, of that I am convinced.
Life goes on. I have a few more adventures left in this wonderful life I've been so fortunate to have lived.