Senior Moments

Sometimes I wonder what old people think about at the end of their lives. Do they smile with gentle satisfaction about what they did right with this time on earth? Or do they sit in their wheelchairs racked with regret? Do they think about the good stuff, or the bad stuff, and what went wrong, and how much they may have been to blame, and who they didn’t get to go the prom with, and who they did? Do they think about the money they made or didn’t make? Do they wish they had kissed their cousins that day in the upstairs room when they were playing spin the bottle? Do they think about all the places they saw, or do they think more about the places they didn’t see? Maybe they just think about lunch.

I don’t know yet. But as the silver touches more and more of my hair, I think perhaps I will find out sooner than now seems possible.

The word “senex” in Latin gives us several important words in English: “senior,” of course, means “older.” “Senile” is a not-particularly-kind word meaning “having lost one’s mind from old age.” “Senescence” is the state in which senile people find themselves.

And finally, there is “Senate,” the council of elders or old people--those who are supposed to be wise. Judging from how well the Senate has done in recent years, I’d say we might as well call them Senilators.

The opposite of “senex” is “juvenus,” youth. That one gives us “junior,” “juvenile,” and “juvenilia” (the product of a young artist’s first efforts).

The old man in the photo is my great-great-grandfather, Cornelius McCardell, a newspaper mogul from Middletown, NY. I don't remember a lot about him, or the stories I heard about him from my mother, but I still have some household things from his house. When I sit in my wheelchair, I will regret that I no longer have my mother to remember things for me; luckily my daughter got her memory, and I still have the pieces, so I’m covered. My girl can put a piece of china in my hand and tell me who I was and my son will spin me tales of his imaginary world. I think it will be fine.