LIFE
What Do 90-Somethings Regret Most?
The winding road of regrets
As I sipped my lukewarm chamomile tea (tragically forgetting to blow on it after that scorching first gulp), I couldn’t help but ponder the wistful words of Margaret, a 93-year-old resident at Sunnyvale Retirement Home. With eyes twinkling like starlight on a moonlit lake, she had just revealed one of her life’s greatest regrets.
“If I could go back, I would have trusted my gut more instead of listening to all those nagging voices telling me to play it safe,” she said, patting my hand with her delicate, wrinkled fingers.
“All the chances I didn’t take, the dreams I shelved ‘for another day’ that never came…”
Her voice trailed off, and in that moment, the aroma of regret hung thicker in the air than my nana’s Christmas pudding. It lingered like the Ghost of Unwritten Novels Past, haunting the corridor with the echo of turned pages that gathered dust on the shelf.
As a writer, I couldn’t resist diving deeper into the twisted labyrinth of a 90-something’s mind. What other regrets slumbered in those seasoned souls, tucked between the creases of memories well-lived (and perhaps a few opportunities ill-missed)?
