“If you saw a penny on the sidewalk,” I asked, “would you bend over to pick it up?”
We looked around the table, made quick eye contact, and then, as one, responded with a resounding “Yes!”
And then we laughed.
We are so much alike: we group of eight sitting at the table with our morning coffee. We are “the coffee group” and we meet five days a week in a nook in the dining room of our home.
Yes, 7:30 a.m. may be too early for you, but it suits us just fine. Our home is Duncaster, a life care community in Bloomfield. We are residents of this community. What makes us brothers and sisters from different mothers is a common joy of life and love for each other.
We range in age from 84 to 96. We respect our differences and take immense joy in what we have in common.
We each have our own apartment and we come together every weekday to check on each other and talk.
What do we talk about every day, you may ask. Just about anything that comes to mind—is the answer. We are especially anxious for the health and well-being of our friends in the community.
“Did you see ‘the women’ last night,” someone asks, of course referring to our beloved UConn women’s basketball team.
“I’m playing pickleball today.”
“University of Hartford is putting on a program tonight.”
“There’s an opening in the art gallery on Friday.”
“How’s Mary doing? She wasn’t feeling well.”
And it goes on for about an hour, then some of us go to our morning exercise group.
Here sits a former executive from a local insurance company next to a retired nurse from St. Francis Hospital.
And then there is the dreamer artist and author who at 50 dropped everything and joined the Peace Corps. She has stories about just everything and we all love hearing about her exploits in the jungles of South America
If you ask nicely, she may even imitate the sounds of jungle animals. One of our group flew her own airplane and has great stories of her escapades.
Now her great story is her adventures with her new CPAP machine. Some of us park our walkers in a neat row so that we can make a quick escape if need be.
The thing is that each one of us has a story of our lives well lived: where we came from, what we did for work and the very best of all—our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Just ask and you’ll get an outpouring of their achievements with pictures to prove their beauty.
We have lived on every continent; traveled all the oceans and lived in hundreds (maybe thousands) of cities around the world.
Another amazing thing is that we are all s busy doing anything you can imagine. We talk (of course), exercise, walk, play cards, paint, write, exercise our minds studying, go to museums, support the arts and much more.
Some of us have our own gardens. Our resident association is active with administration working for the betterment of the community. We had time to create and produce “Duncaster Follies” last year which was a review involving 45 residents and staff in a hilarious show enjoyed by all.
And yes, we deal with the illnesses and losses both outside our community and within. We grieve, support our friends and move on. This, too, is part of our lives.
Are we old? Maybe in years but we work to keep our minds strong. We are the young elders. We are happy, active, fun, friendly and very alive.
If you drop a penny on the sidewalk or in the mall—there is a good chance that one of us will stop to pick it up. That’s what our generation does.
David Kravet lives in Bloomfield.