If you miss an appointment, a friend will ask you if you are OK.
If you are five minutes late to an appointment, that friend will ask you if you are OK.
If you are on time for that appointment, that friend still will ask you if you are OK.
If you move deliberately but cautiously at Lowe’s Garden Shop, a passerby will ask you if you are OK.
If at the gym you nod and relax while taking a post-workout BP reading, a trainer will ask, “Are you OK?”
If you employ your turn signal in a parking lot, a passenger will inquire “Are you OK”?
If ever you hesitate, about anything, someone will ask, “Are you OK”?
If you forget who won MVP in the 1969 World Series, expect, “Are you OK?”
And, if you deliberately but cautiously approach the door to a building, someone will assume you are not OK and hold the door for you.
If the subject of age comes up, someone surely will say, “You don’t look 90,” even if you do.
If you walk into a room and forget why, you will wonder if this signals a visit from Al, even though this same thing happens often to everyone, even smart young people.
If you temporarily forget where you put the car keys, do not tell your sons or daughters. Just pray to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost stuff. When you find the keys, do not tell them that either; for if you do, they will take the keys from you.
If you cannot think of an old friend’s name upon greeting him or her, compose yourself. It will occur to you tomorrow, and we all can have a laugh about it. For heaven’s sake do not guess wrong. Not OK!
If in the middle of a conversation, you cannot think of something to say, say, “Oh, to be 89 again.” This will get a laugh and make you feel OK.
You once laughed at older folks who ate dinner at 4:30 PM instead of later. Now you are laughing with them.
By the way, before I forget, “Are you OK?”
What is it like to be 90? Pretty OK!
