Many of My Friends Are Dying
And a small part of me goes with them…
In the past year, I have lost several friends. I know this is a part of life, but still, it doesn’t make it any easier.
You see, many of my friends are older. After retiring at fifty, I volunteered for seventeen years at the the Culver City Senior Center in Los Angeles, and most of the people I met were in their 70s and 80s.
These people were a new demographic for me. It was easy for me to pigeonhole them into one grey blob until I got to know them. I discovered that many of them were still full of life, flooded with a desire to be included, appreciated, and remain visible.
So many had lead fascinating lives. Some were business owners. Others performed on stage. One had been gifted copywriter at an ad agency. Although they were older, they had stories to tell. Because I had lost my parents years ago, they also filled a parental niche.
They gave me a perspective on life that I couldn’t find with some of my younger friends. I gained wisdom about how to survive. I learned what it’s like to bury a spouse. One woman told me about the horrors she endured from fleeing Auschwitz at the age of…
