When my mother arrived in this world, her parents intended to name her Shirley Arlene King. Shirley’s big sister made an appeal to switch the name to Arlene Shirley and presented her case with a valid explanation: “Because then her initials will spell ‘A.S. King’ but we can still call her Shirley!” A win-win deal! Shirley’s mother switched the order of the names. As Shirley grew up, that name order became increasingly appropriate. Whenever a situation needed a solution, she would ask herself, “There has to be a way to do this, but how?” Mom displayed an unnerving resolve despite being born with a disability that left her with just one hand.
All five of her children have learned to let the now-92-year-old Mom show us how to answer that question as she continues to live young in the process. Mom believes old age sneaks in when she stops asking that question. The following story illustrates how her attitude has influenced the next generation: her 34 grandchildren and her 70 great-grandchildren.
It happened one day while I was baking cookies with my grandchildren, and 9-year-old Zach reminded me that his brother was going to have a birthday soon, and he would be 6 years old!
“Wow!” I marveled, “that makes him old!”
Fourteen-year-old Dayci said, “Then that makes me ancient!”
To which I replied, “Hmmm. Then what does that make me?”
Dayci’s response: “Extinct?”
Zach’s response: “Ageless!” Zach’s answer is a perfect description of their 92-year-old great-grandmother, who is showing us all how to live agelessly.
As a kid, she had to herd the cows from the far end of the pasture to the barn for the evening milking. She decided walking one way through the grass and weeds was enough. Why walk back when she could ride a cow? Problem solved. Years later at age 92, she needed to go to her son’s home several states away, a much longer trip than the length of a pasture! She moved from cow power to horsepower and drove the 21.5 hours to his house (with rests, of course). Problem solved.
