I’m An Old Person Now
And I intend on getting even older!
It’s hard for me to think of myself as old because I live with my ninety-five year old mother. She’s the elderly person in our family.
But I guess I am. Overnight, I became one, when the morning newscasters forced this realization upon me. This new virus, they said, is looking for old people, meaning anyone over sixty.
They (I’ll use this pronoun since it’s now politically correct) will attack your lungs, making it difficult to breath, raise your body temperature and cause miserable aches and pains. And they are coming for those individuals with comprised immune systems and the elderly.
I rolled over and nudge my husband of forty-one years. “I guess we’re old people now.”
In order to accommodate us and keep us safe, we now have our own shopping hours, just as we have senior discounts and early bird dinner specials.
At first, I hesitated to take advantage of this status, but now I do shop during “Senior Hour” to ensure less contact with other people. Although, why the “old people” hour has to be from 7- 8 is beyond me. As if just because we’re old, we get up early.
The fact is, my mother (the real old person) sleeps until 10:30 or later, every single day.
Which is a blessing. Because when she wakes up, it’s a repeat of the day before and the day before that. She doesn’t quite understand why we have to stay home.
The rationing reminds her of WWII. Although, she says, back then we could touch each other for comfort.
To me, the numbers being rattled off each day — 8,825 infected in New Jersey, 108 deaths, 4,205 infected in California, 85 deaths, remind me of the casualties they announced every morning on the radio during the Vietnam War: 200 Viet Cong, 450 North Vietnamese, 1,000 US Troops.
I was a senior in high school at the time and I would listen to those counts as I got ready for school.
My granddaughter is a high school senior now and I ache for her and the cancellation of all her senior events. I know she will survive and the isolation of 2020 will become part of her high school history. Just as the Vietnam war and John F. Kennedy’s assassination are part of mine.
She reminds me daily to be careful. To wear a mask and gloves when leaving the house. And to wash my hands. Because of my age, she warns, I have to be extra cautious.
So, I guess, yes, I am an old person.
My wish now is for you and everyone you know, and everyone they know and everyone everywhere to have the chance to become one, too.
Stay healthy and safe!
