There are no accidents. After writing yesterday's post, this afternoon I had the pleasure of a lovely, leisurely lunch with two older friends. "Gentleman" is the just right description - genuine & curious & kind. It is uplifting to know how fully life at the senior residence suits his ways, his style, his history.
Every morning, every afternoon, every evening, he knows an abundance of friends look forward to his company at breakfast, lunch & dinner, whether he eats a deux in the cafe or at a table for nine in the dining room. In the latish evening, when I walk with a grannie client back to her apartment, he's usually to be found in a gathering spot on the main floor, with at least several other hepcat oldsters.
And he loves his solitude, alone in his apartment with his newspaper, his books, his classical music.
My dear friend's world IS the senior residence. And that is not a negative. My friend is the antithesis of negative.
I believe he's aided by gifts of long sight & clarity & perspective, perhaps rooted in his family's flight from 1939 Germany. He certainly has the gift of seeing - apparently without censure - what's past his present-day abilities, while embracing all that awaits being savored enjoyed experienced.
Although fairly mobile, physical challenges keep him - by choice - from going out on rambles, to concerts or book stores. While his physical world might be confined, in every other way it's without boundaries, a universe as expansive as his books, his music, his friends.
He'd wave me away for saying this, but he'll be a role model forever in my heart.
Here's hoping my friend, blessed by a life he takes delight in & in which he gives others delight, is increasingly not a blessed anomaly but the norm!
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