Sunday, September 25, 2011

Beauty at Ninety

I visited a friend's mother at Regents Point in Irvine.

Beauty everywhere... in the faces and flowers.

Her mother is 90 years old and in hospice care but still gracious and a pleasure to talk with. She even laughed deeply at one of my jokes!

At one point, mother-like, she asked "Aren't you chilly?" and I realized, yes, I was. I put on a sweater.

At her mother's nintieth birthday party last June, my friend made t-shirts with photos of her at various points in her life. Children and grandchildren each wore a t-shirt of her at the same age each is now... or of him or herself as a child with her.

From the perspective of life at its busiest, this beautiful woman's life is now much diminished, but from another viewpoint, there is still quality of life.