This is the month of love and Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Of course, as I understand it, the day has its origin in Catholic martyrdom and/or pagan beliefs http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day

In any case, it is seen as a celebration of romance. I choose to see it as a celebration of true love…sacrificial love….the love that comes from choice. I choose to love. I choose to sacrifice what I want for what God wants. I definitely don’t want to change a dirty adult diaper for one of our members. But I do it because I love the member as God loves. God wants what is best for them, so I want what is best for them, and if that means sacrificing some of my time and sensibilities, then so be it.

THEREFORE: THIS IS IS AGING WITH GRACE’S 50+ MONTH TO SHINE!!!!

Funny conversation happened this week at one of the meetings I attended: I was talking with a 70 year old gentleman who has had a career in all things insurance. He said he had purchased long term care insurance for himself. I said great, so have I. He said his mother had aged through a continuum of care community in Cincinnati managed by the Catholic Church. He said she had six children, and nothing was too good for Mom. He said they took good care of her at the Catholic Nursing Home. I asked him if that is where he wanted to go when he needed long term care. He looked at me in shock and replied, no he wanted to be in Lexington, because that was where his family was. I said, oh, which nursing home do you like the best? He looked at me in shock again and said he did not know. I suggested that he and his wife shop around and pick out the one they like the best and then tell his children and put it in writing. It is one thing to have the gas to put in the vehicle that will carry you during your last days in this world, and it is quite another to have the vehicle.

Do you really want to spend your vulnerable old age days in a nursing home, Mr. Insurance Man? Aging With Grace is an alternative to nursing home care, you know. For me, as you may have heard before, I want to spend my vulnerable old age days attending Aging With Grace daily for 8 or so hours a day five or six days a week, then returning home to sleep in my own bed at night. I want my own house as long as possible, but if that becomes no longer viable, I would like to have a bedroom or mother in law apartment at my son’s house.

And so in a way, I am already living what I want for myself in my vulnerable old age days. I am at the club 11 hours a day, and 8 hours on a sixth day. I love it!