Getting old - what it feels like

[Bob Eisenman]

I finished updating my online alumnus page at my Alma Mater. After taking the time to do so I tried to look for the pages of various people I knew as well as the page of a former GF back in the 1970s. Marriage changes the last names of females who have the option of not indexing their maiden name. My GF page search went unfulfilled. 

I remembered the name of another student who was dating one of the other girls in their 'suite' of dorm rooms. He was two years older and wanted to go to medical school. Performing an alumni search with his named succeeded but with one caveat. At the end of his profile page he was listed as 'deceased'.

I remember searching once in prior years for his whereabouts and learned that he was a practicing physician in the state of Connecticut, the home state of my former spouse. A Google search including the words obituary turned up the expected. Here is an exerpt.

"passed away peacefully in his home on July 18, 2018 surrounded by his wife and children. "

"He spent his career as a physician in various settings including a private practice "

"After retiring, his love of gardening led him to pursue a degree as a master gardener."

"He enjoyed life's simple pleasures: mowing the lawn while listening to 60's music, bird watching and getting coffee with friends."

So....while I sometimes sit and fume about not finishing graduate school, the circumstances of a marriage gone bad, the loss of a great job a decade+ ago, etc.....this former acquaintance who I hardly knew in the Viet Nam war days, who called my GF 'Susie-Q' in conversation (or was it another of my alumni GF's friends (knickname= 'Bagel')who called her Susie-Q?) lived a full life, attained his chosen profession and passed on as being fondly remembered in his life and final days.

I guess the revelation of his passing is part of getting older.

Times have changed. A commentor (female from Russia) in another forum for drones commented 'Super' about my post of a big surf video at a beach that I've walked on ever since those college days in the 1970s.

 

 

When I was a student in the 1970's a visiting lecturer from a Russian Academy gave us biochemistry students a seminar talk on growing corn (in Russia). It was a unique experience to have listened to that lecturer from a country so far away. These days ...international contacts and correspondences are just a few mouse clicks away.

This reminds me.....I wonder when Jane at Gotway will ship my replacement motor for the Monster?

Should I buy medical insurance at the going rate of about $400 a month or go with the Medicare plans?

At 65 years of age.....some things have changed.