Being 96

Interview someone — a friend, another blogger, your mother, the mailman — and write a post based on their responses.

I interviewed my mother, the oldest person I know.

What is it like to be 96?

It’s just like being 18 or 24. I am always surprised to see I am old when I pass a mirror. I feel the same I always did.

Are you in pain?

Not a bit. I have arthritis. See these bumps on my fingers and toes. I used to have a lot of pain but I’ve been using a simple remedy for years. I don’t remember where I heard it, now. I mix one teaspoon of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of honey in a cup of sugar-free hot cocoa first thing every morning. That controls my pain. I tell people all the time but very few people try it. It works for me. I am 96 with arthritis and no pain.

You’ve been widowed more than forty years. Are you lonesome?

No. After that long, I think I’d have to work hard to be sad. He’s been out of my life so long, I’ve been widowed longer than I was married. I still remember the good times and bad but it’s not painful.

What changes have you seen in your life?

I was born at a time when nobody in my family had a car. We walked or road in a wagon. I lived in the country, so we had no electricity, gas, running water, or indoor bathroom. It was The Great Depression. Daddy didn’t have a job. He farmed. The whole family helped. One of the first things I remember my parents saying was, “We don’t have the money,” no matter what the subject was. My dad did any odd job he could get, plowing a field, helping dig a well, or cutting hair. Mama sewed for the public and paid the rent by doing the landlady’s wash. It took all day to wash and the next to iron. Us kids helped.

Our dresses were often made of printed feedsacks. It took three to make a dress and one to make a shirt. I never had a storebought dress till I was grown. I only ever knew of my parents buying two things new, both hefore I was born. Daddy sold Singer Sewing Machines for a while and had managed to buy Mama one. They’d also managed to buy a pressure canner. Both these items were precious since Mam sewed everything she and the girls wore and made a bit of cash sewing for the the public. She and Daddy were good farmers. Mama canned enough vegetables to feed us all year. We never went hungry or ragged. Learning how to make with bare necessities has made everything since then better.

I never imagined I’d see men walk on the moon and stay in space for months. Things have changed a lot but people really haven’t.

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