As you know, we love having visitors and meeting new people. Today Vivien and Rebecca came to stay with us, 2 students giving their weekend to help out at Extreme Day, our church’s youth event. Rebecca comes from Florida and was obviously brought up to be very polite “Yes, sir.” “Yes Ma’am” etc etc so she started off calling me Miss Kathy.
Aaargh! I feel so old.
As the saying goes, growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. My mother only stopped saying she was APPROACHING middle age shortly before her 60th birthday, yet my mother-in-law tells me that each new decade is better than the last. If I can’t fight it, I might as well enjoy it. Jenny Joseph said it so well:
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
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