HEALTH | AGING | PERSONAL ESSAY

I Didn’t Age Slowly — It Happened All at Once — but I’m Reclaiming My Health

We’d all be slender with great knees if it were our choice

selfie by author — working very hard to be healthy despite a radiation treatment that day

Aging and physical changes are inevitable. How you deal with the changes — which can be depressing or at least worrisome — is the trick. When I got cancer, my looks and health changed dramatically in the space of a year. It wasn’t much fun.

Especially when people around me could be thoughtless in noticing my descent.

“When I get old, I’m going to work really hard at looking good and staying healthy,” my young family member said. “I’m not going to let myself get ugly.”

She eyed me critically. Or was that my imagination? I felt so defensive and hurt.

The last two years were hard, and I’ve changed. I can see it. She can see it, I’m sure. Why else would she have said such a thing? Thinking back to that horrible moment, I can see the remarks for what they were — insensitive and thoughtless.

However, there is some truth to being proactive, wherever you’re at in your health and age