Seniorwiter's Top Ten List for 2007: Good News / Bad News on Aging, Travel, Writing, and Family

Photo:

No, that's not me. It's my late mother, Violet Uhl Marshall Funston, celebrating her 93rd birthday in 2004 (with her grandson, my nephew, John D. Marshall). See #1 below.

Will I be lucky enough to live that long and still look so good?

10. I turned 75. I’m glad to be alive, but I could do without the wrinkles, aches, and pains.

9. Walking on ice became impossible (two falls last winter), so I considered giving up my one-morning-a-week volunteer job. The long walk and rush hour bus ride are just too much in the winter, and it’s hard to find an available taxi here before nine a.m. However, I discovered that I can leave my heated garage, drive to the Grant Park North garage, and walk underground to the Cultural Center without venturing outside. The cost, $22, is a bit steep to get to a volunteer job, but I can probably afford it, at least until spring.

8. My future luxury high rise lifetime care residence, The Clare at Water Tower, extends at least 40 stories (out of 53) into the sky now, and it looks beautiful. Thoughts of my final move and living among "old people" (like me) still bother me a bit.

7. I traveled to Ireland for the first time. It’s a beautiful country, but to get to and from there required a long plane trip in economy class and going through London’s non-senior-friendly Heathrow Airport. My arthritic knees gave out in a big way.

6. I decided to give up overseas travel, but within months I was planning a business class trip to South Africa for 2008. Am I crazy, or what?

5. I took a creative writing class with some wonderful young people. I enjoyed the class. Two of my short stories will soon be available as Amazon Shorts, and two others have appeared in The Elders Tribune on line. My stories are about elderly people, and they’ll never be widely popular. That’s all right. My regular Writing column on eGenerations is gradually attracting more readers, as are my two blogs.

4. I published my second book, Seniorwriting: A Brief Guide for Seniors Who Want to Write. Due to poor communication between Infinity Publishing and Amazon.com, it appeared to be unavailable for months, although it really has been out since early October. I’ve been told that all is well now.

3. Seniorwriting received good reviews and interviews, but of course the mainstream media and bookstores aren’t interested. My first book, Reinventing Myself, and my first blog, "Never too Late!" both won awards from the Illinois Woman’s Press Association and the National Federation of Press Women in 2007.

2. I had one short story and one essay accepted by different anthologies planned for 2007. One anthology was cancelled for lack of interest, and the other, due out on December 1, is in limbo. Oh well.

1. My mother, Violet Uhl Marshall Funston, died at age 95 in Minnesota. We weren’t especially close, but she remained an active, adventurous, friendly woman into her nineties. She will be missed, but in a way, it was good that her final pain and suffering ended. Her death brought contacts with relatives and friends I hadn’t seen or heard from in years, and I was able to edit a family-and-friends tribute to her, Remembering Violet.

So that's my strange and personal Top Ten list for 2007. To sum up the year, I can only say that nothing’s perfect, but life goes on, and there’s more good than bad. How about writing your own top ten list?

Copyright 2007 by Marlys Marshall Styne