LIFE AND FICTION

Why I Wrote the Novel About the Man Who Didn’t Want to Grow Old

I came to a point in my life where I faced a substantial change

Blue Insights
Published in
4 min readSep 24, 2024

--

Updated Oct 26, 2024: The story concludes with a video.

Photo: Øivind H. Solheim

Ten years ago, I had lived for 67 years, had been married twice (15 years first and then for almost 30 years, and am still today in the last marriage).

I had children, had a family and had experienced a lot, both good and bad, and I had worked for 40 years helping young people between the ages of 16 and 19 to learn what they needed to take exams and finish high school.

And for a large part of my life, from the time I was 26 until I was approaching retirement age, I had lived in a relationship, I had lived in a family, and for almost 50 years, right up until I was in my mid-70s, we had children in the house all the time.

Today I turn 77, and I look both backwards at what has been my life all these years, and forward towards what will be my life in the future, which is identical to what is my life here and now.

When I reached the age that I was going to retire, I faced something completely new in my life. I thought perhaps that there was only one thing to focus on then, and that is to live as best as…

--

--

Øivind H. Solheim - the Novel Author
Blue Insights

New novel: The Man Who Stopped Aging, Amazon Kindle. Love story & intellectual investigation: Can we extend human life to 100 or 110? www.oivindhsolheim.com/