My elderly Mom keeps two pennies in her kitchen cabinet.  I asked her why.  She told me that they are for the Grim Reaper.  She said you have to pay him when he comes calling.  One penny is for her.  The other is for my Dad.

I cannot help but wonder how it feels to be at that stage of your life when you are awaiting the Grim Reaper.  My Mom and Dad are in their nineties.  Like many people, they made a home together and raised a family.  They have both been blessed with good, comfortable lives.  So after the children are gone and even the grandchildren have grown, what is left to look forward to?  How do you make your latter years as fulfilling as your former years?  How do you stay busy enjoying life so that death is not a looming thought?

We are so fixated on youth that growing old is synonymous with “the end” instead of “a new beginning”.  We must change that perception.  Life in our senior years should be an exciting new chapter with more time for leisure and less time devoted to responsibility.  Baby Boomers have hit the ground running as they retire.  Hopefully, they will set a new standard for what it means to grow old.  People are living longer and healthier lives than in the past.  There is plenty of time to learn a new skill, take up a hobby, or even continue to work if you enjoy doing so.  You can even devote some time to helping others by volunteering.

I would by lying if I said those two pennies in my Mom’s kitchen cabinet weren’t sobering.  They  made me realize that I want to live my life to the fullest right up to the moment that I die.  It is inevitable that, one day, I too will have to pay the Grim Reaper.  He won’t, however, find me sitting in the waiting room with my change purse on my lap.  He is going to have to come and find me.

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