Feet First: Point of Departure

•A Toast...Three cheers to the memory of Jonathan Winters, who passed away this week at age 87.  He did some of the most wickedly funny characterizations of old people in history, and many decades ago my friends and I would memorize parts of his early records.  One of the all-time greats...

•From material that I didn't include in my book, Feet First-Riding the Elder Care Rollercoaster with My Father:

•It's Beee-eau-ti-ful in Here... My father Ellie always hated the cold.  Even in the 100º desert temperatures of Palm Springs he refused to lower the thermostat below 88º.  On one occasion, my brother Gary and I were visiting him at the same time.  My father was his usual cantankerous self, and an argument quickly ensued about the temperature of his apartment: "Don't touch that thermostat!" my father yelled.  He turned to me and started screaming "Who the hell do you think you are?  Don't tell me what to do!  I'll drop dead if it gets cold in here!" Gary calmly walked behind him and, without my father seeing it, lowered the thermostat to 60º... 

•I think it's an oldie, but... My father once said to me that, to him, pulling an "all night-er" meant not having to get up to pee...

•Just don't look... In the last few months before the incident that forced my father to leave his independence behind, he walked past a mirror, stopped,  looked at himself, and said, "Oh my God, I took an ugly pill today...!"

•And finally...One more raised glass to all elderly people who just won't give up, who won't let aches, pains, or anything else soften their resolve to live fully, and maybe most importantly, independently.  To my father, who absolutely never gave up (see my book-you'll be amazed at his antics); to my mother, who insisted on doing as much as she could by herself all the way to the end; to the 88 year-old man in the duck-hunting hat who takes his constitutional past my house every day at precisely 12 noon; to my elderly friends at the pool who, when I sometimes say that I don't feel like going to the gym, tell me that's when I  have to go; to Grandma Marge who, at almost 80, is still taking care of her middle-aged, handicapped daughter; and to all the (much) older parents who decided to have children late in their life-you've all got guts...

As Bette Davis said (and many since): "Gettin' old ain't for sissies..."

Check out my website: http://www.jamielegon.com to see an excerpt from my book or to contact me directly...