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Guest Column

Her good attitude fuels her zeal for life

By MARY PARTINGTON
Published June 19, 2006

There she goes, the lady in the walking shoes wearing one of her colorful outfits. She is my neighbor and I admire her so. Her age is just a number, and hers is unlisted. She is diminutive and yet she has an immense presence because of her zeal for life.

Whenever she walks into a room, it changes just because she is present. She wears the latest fashions with verve; and on her, they look wonderful because she chooses with care. She blends the old with the new, and she never misses an opportunity to look her best. She is always soft-spoken and gracious.

What gives this tiny grandmother such a commanding allure?

It is her attitude on life and aging. At any age our attitude sets the course for our lives, but as we grow older, our attitude plays even a greater role in our life. As we suffer the pains and losses of aging, we make choices as to how we are going to cope with our tragedies and our maladies. We can choose to be joyful, amiable, compliant, or we can be dour and annoyed at what life gives us.

As I look at my life, I am reminded of so many elder acquaintances who left a mark. I am so happy to remember a couple, Dave and Jo, that were friends of my husband's mother. Whenever we visited my mother-in-law, an invitation to Dave and Jo's home was a delight. We would take the children, and the evening would be filled with love and laughter. Jo was the perfect hostess, and the food would be simple but served with great style. Jo was the ultimate parlor game player, and the games would be raucous. They never had children of their own, and they lavished our children with love. To this day, our children carry in their hearts such fond memories of Dave and Jo.

The two people who left the greatest mark on my life with the attitude they lived their lives by were my mother and father. When I was 6, my father had an accident in the home, and it left him a quadriplegic. Two years later, my oldest brother got polio, and it left him paralyzed from the waist down.

After the initial shock of the accident and illness, my mother and father set about rebuilding their lives and giving to us the greatest examples of living with adversity.

So many times we read of stories of tragedy and loss, and as this war on terror continues we are deluged with sorrow.

In his book, Man's Search for Meaning, about life in the concentration camps, Dr. Viktor E. Frankl relates how after everything was stripped away from the inmates the one and only thing that they could control was their attitude. Life has a way of stripping away our health, friends, family and resources, but we are left with our choice of how we are going to deal with these losses. The people we meet who have the outlook that life is joyous and worth living will remain with us in our hearts and minds. And, to my neighbor, I say, "You go, girl!"

Mary Partington lives in New Port Richey. Guest columnists write their own views on subjects they choose, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.

[Last modified June 19, 2006, 08:59:59]