just two years away (lyn)

“A 62-year old Florida woman is found safe, after spending four days in a swamp.” 

This is the news that greets me this morning.  My back is to the TV and so I turn to watch.  I see  a smiling, elderly woman, safe in the studios of NBC.

The story goes on to describe Kathy Shino, grandmother of eight, and her harrowing four days stuck in a Florida swamp, with only her head above the muddy, alligator-infested water.    What amazes me most about the story isn’t that she survived, but rather how she looks.  Old. 

In two years, I too, will be sixty-two.  I’ll be a senior, proven by the fact that I’ll be able to purchase discounted movie tickets.  But I don’t look at all like Ms. Shino.  I feel more like her daughter than her peer.  Losing 40 pounds helped a lot in my perception of self.  But other factors also contributed.  Being a mother of an 18-year old keeps me current; some of my son's biggest laughs come from my mispronunciation of current pop culture names.  My friends are all young (if not chronologically, than certainly in all other ways).  By most standards, I have an active lifestyle.  I’m not afraid of the computer; in fact, I am probably more fluent on it than my son.  I consider those 10 years younger, more or less around the same age as I am, while those ten years older seem more like my parents.  

Being fit (which I’m not) and thin (which I am) help in staying young.  I really need to work on the former. 

In two years I’ll be as old as the woman stuck in the swamp.  But three things I am fairly certain will be true: 

1. I will be more fit than I am now.
2. I will still be thin.
3. I will not be a grandmother of eight, and hopefully not even of one!