Growing Up in Old Age"I am determined not to let the fear of growing old deprive me of the happiness that has always come naturally to me", writes Margaret Howe Freydberg in Growing up In Old Age, a touching memoir of one woman's struggle to cope with nature's unyielding course of aging. It is her philosophies and daily reasoning that invoke the reader with courage. In the face of an ailing husband, knowing that death is soon to follow, she confronts her fear, and instead of burying herself in overprotectivness of her husband she concludes "I do not want to harm the last years of his life, and of mine, with what appears to be love, but is not". She unbears her soul through the solace of writing, which takes the reader on a daring, eye-opening journey. "I am not a finished old woman. I am an old woman growing up", concludes Freydberg. |
Contents
Am I to Spend the Rest of My Life in | 15 |
Happiness | 43 |
4 | 57 |
Copyright | |
9 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action Alan Watts alive attentiveness basic beach Beach plum become began beginning begun believe Charlotte Joko Beck conscious course Dance of Shiva dark death egoism emotional empty everything experience eyes face fact father fear of old feel felt flower gestating gestalt girl growing hand happen happiness heart hope husband imagine innate inner integrity John Cheever Jon Kabat-Zinn kind kiss kitchen knew learned living look loss loveseat Margaret Marianne Moore marriage mean morning Mother ness never Nick's night old age old woman perfect perfect flower perhaps person present put my mind reality realize remember rience seems self-concern self-identity sense sense and sensibility simply sitting someone spirit stop strawberry suddenly suffering talk thing Thomas Carlyle thought tiger tion trying wonder words worry writing young وو