I was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942. As I write this now, I am 82 years old and valuing the joys of old age. I have a number of friends who are 90 years old and even older. I am the matriarch emerita of my family, the oldest person in my family. Three other family members are close enough to my age to be considered old, within three to five years of my age. I enjoy the company of old and other not-so-old people—middle-aged, young adults, adolescents, and children—as long as they are the kind of people I tend to like! What kind of people do I tend to like? Oh, that’s a complicated question with a complicated answer that took 82 years to develop and is still developing. I don’t feel a need to answer that question now, but I would like to contemplate old age and perhaps say a few more words that are bubbling up.
Merle Molofsky (Wed,) studied this question.