Age Is Only a Number

Spouse and I were walking in one of the neighborhoods of Binghamton, New York yesterday when a man walking across the street from us started to wave to us, and motioned us over.

I couldn't place him at first.

"Do you recognize me?" he asked.  "I used to work with you."

It's been almost 25 years since we talked.  I'm not the best with faces or voices but he recognized me right away.

We caught up.

I had to dig back into my memory for some of the questions he asked me.  Then, when I got home, other memories started to flow.

My son, my son who is in his early 30s now, used to head for this man's office when I took him to visit me at work, knowing that a piece of candy awaited him.  How old was my son back then?  Five?  Was my son ever that young?

My co-worker's favorite expressions was "age is only a number".  Today, one of those numbers is "7". He has no intention of retiring, but he was in an accident several months ago and it's been a hard road back. 

Life isn't always kind. In a random moment, everything changed.

That, and, of course, the pandemic.

Despite everything, my ex co-worker says he has no intention of retiring.  If anything, he said enthusiastically, he enjoys his work more than ever, as his understanding of his career field deepens.

This is not the blog post I intended to write today.  I wanted to blog about something I recently heard or read, about the pandemic having provided a kind of reset for many of us.  Each of us has decisions to make, to decide (as we shed pandemic rules) if we want to resume the life we had or embark on a different direction.

Now, I have some new inspiration.

My ex co-worker has made his decision and is working his way towards the day he can resume his career once again.  I'm still pondering my life to come.  This encounter, though, was a reminder that as much as we plan, the unexpected always strikes.  After all, how many of us were changed by 2020?

So, my ex co-worker and I, we went our separate ways, but we may meet again.   He lives on one of my regular exercise walking routes.

I hope he can age with grace.  I hope life gives him that opportunity.

Because, after all, age is only a number.