I recently came home from a vacation where I spent ten days touring Southern cities with twenty-four people over the age of sixty. I had the time of my life with these people and the following reasons explain why.
1. They’ve Endured Hardships and Healed from Them
While sitting beside my new friends in a horse carriage or at several dinners, I learned about their lives. One pretty, eighty-eight-year-old woman had raised two of her grandchildren after her daughter and son-in-law died. When she smiled, her eyes lit up like stars. Another woman, traveling alone, was married to a man who has suffered from Muscular Dystrophy for twenty years and is bedridden. A tall, handsome mustached man experienced extreme pain one day when his gout acted up during a tour of a plantation when the tour required a lot of walking. He was a sweet and endearing man, always kind to everyone. A friendly woman walked with a cane, yet she was a fascinating conversationalist. Despite having all of these trials in their lives, these individuals were traveling and living happy lives which indicates their strength of character and determination to be happy.
2. They’ve Developed Long Careers
This group of travelers represented a broad range of careers. One man, at seventy-seven-years old was still working as an ophthalmologist. A blonde-haired woman, who was married to a former president of a silicone company, was a former cooking instructor. Two women from Pennsylvania were realtors, and another was an English professor. All of the travelers had decades of experience in working and lots of stories they could tell of their working years. This made them interesting companions.
3. They Don’t Need to Impress You
No one had the need to impress anyone else. No one was critical, either. They accepted everyone, whether he or she used a cane, was shy, drank a little too much, or liked to be alone once in a while. Perhaps, because they had lived through hardships and experienced numerous relationships with many different kinds of people, they didn’t feel they had to compete with anyone else’s achievements. They had plenty of their own.
4. They Love People and Relationships
This was an exceptionally friendly group of people, perhaps because they were old enough to understand that people and relationships bring the most joy into our lives. The woman whose husband had Muscular Dystrophy made sure she dined with each and every person on the tour. During every bus ride, we chatted together about our lives. We took photographs of each other on beautiful, historic bridges. We climbed to the rooftops of Revolutionary forts together. We toasted glasses of wine, shared appetizers, discussed fish and steak, described our desserts. So even though we were on a tour to visit the South, our emphasis was experiencing the country with new people and in developing new relationships.
5. They Can Relate to Your Experiences
After working for years in a profession, it certainly is rewarding for someone else to be able to identify with your years of working with students, clients, or patients. If you spent years in human resources solving employee problems, it’s rewarding to tell someone else about your work and have them understand your accomplishments. Since there were a few teachers on the tour, they easily appreciated the hard work of teaching. The corporate attorneys and accountants could understand corporate work, and the medical professionals could share stories about special cases or patients. People with different careers could appreciate each other since long careers all require hard work, problem-solving, and endurance.
6. They Know How to Live in the Present
Old people know how short life is, and so they are better at focusing on the present moment instead of always thinking about the future. Some mornings, my travelers took a walk on the beach at Hilton Head just to watch the sunrise over the bulging, grey Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes, they put on their swimsuits and swam in the pool. They sat in the hotel courtyard on warm afternoons to enjoy the balmy weather and blooming bougainvillea. They lingered at dinner long after the dessert was served to talk with their new friends, and they asked each other to take pictures in the plantation gardens.
Old people are a lot like good novels. They have so much life to share. After spending ten days with my over-sixty-year-old travelers, I’ve come home with much more than memories of places. My life has been enriched with the strength, experience, confidence, humanity, empathy, and mindfulness of these incredible people.
Tess Perko's Blog 