The other day, my friend Stella, an effervescent 70-year-old, asked me, “What is your definition of ‘old’?” I struggled to come up with an answer.
“Pick an age,” she encouraged.
“Well …maybe 90?” I offered.
“So, 20 years older than we are, then?” she said. We laughed about it because it’s so true, isn’t it? Particularly as we pass middle age. In a way, it really is as good a definition of “old” as any: 20 years older than you are at any given moment!
As I write this now, I definitely don’t feel old. A little more grown-up than I once was, perhaps, but not necessarily old. Even at 94, my mum, bless her, would often tell me she still felt “24 inside”, and I know what she meant.…
