MY MOM’S SHRINKING WORLD VIEW?
At 5'6", she used to be an inch taller than I am. Or--full disclosure--an inch taller than I was, since I, too, have lost stature. Yet despite her hunch from scoliosis, she has the wrinkle-free skin and pretty, youthful face of someone much younger than her 87+ years. When asked her secret, she says, in her best what's-the-big-deal-I-don't-deserve-any-credit-for-this tone: "soap and water and a rough wash cloth."
Members of my family do tend to look young for their age--on the outside, that is. My dermatologist dad whom I always felt I resembled, only made it to 63--a sobering thought as I approached 63, especially since the day my mom and my 12-year-old self came back from a happy outing to find him saying to the ambulance personnel who were working on him, "this is the day my father died and I'm going to die on the same day." He didn't, but what's an impressionable pre-teenager supposed to take away from this out-of-the-blue...