Seniors as Role Models

When someone asks me why I do this kind of work my answer always includes the statement that ‘I meet so many nice people’. Last weekend I had to attend the funeral of a recent client. Irene was a lovely lady who moved to a Retirement Residence in 2011. As I listened to family and friends talk about her life I realized that it was about much more than ‘nice people’. What I can now verbalize is that it is about meeting wonderful role models. And that is what Irene was. At almost 92 years of age Irene had a joie de vivre that is rare even in young people. It was that, as well as her love of people and engaging with them, her adventurousness, and her pragmatism about life that made me view her as a very special person. I wouldn’t have guessed that I would still be looking for role models when I was almost 60 but I realize now how important it is to have role models as long as we are moving forward into new phases of our life.