There is something splendid about the word ageful – a word which I had not encountered before reading Bytheway (2000). Ironically, Bytheway does not share my affection for his invention; rather, for him it seems to have negative connotations, reflected in his comment: ‘as gerontologists we are vulnerable to seeing ourselves and those we study entirely in terms of age: as ageing rather than living individuals: ageful rather than ageless’ (2000: 785–6). But why this juxtaposition between ageing and living? Surely there is an interconnectedness between the two. We are ageing from the moment we are born; the longer we live, the more full of age we become.
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Molly Andrews (2000) studied this question.