What’s the hardest part of getting older?

The hardest part of getting older is watching your friends disappear. All my friends are dropping like flies. I lost three 90-year-olds just before COVID, and one of my music friends passed away and left me their walker. It seems they’re all going, one after another. Even Bill, Anne’s father, passed away recently - though I’m glad the chair I donated is still being used by her mum up there on their farm, especially now that she’s had a hip replacement. It’s nice to know these pieces of our friendships live on.

But you can’t just sit there with an empty friend bucket - that’s not good enough! You have to keep filling the gaps. Take Patty, for instance. He’s become a new friend because we’re both slow eaters. I was telling everyone how much I love him for that, and he was looking at me like, “What is Joyce talking about?” When I asked if he was really a slow eater, he said, “Oh yeah, I get into trouble.” What a fine fellow! He’s not quite used to my ways yet, but he will be.

That’s how I’ve managed to keep going - making new connections, finding new people to laugh with. Between the chatty cafe and my music, I’ve done it very well, I think. The family keeps expanding and breeding like flies too, which helps! We have a lot of fun, always laughing. That’s very lucky, isn’t it? When I look around at all the faces, old and new, I think that’s what life’s all about - keeping your heart open to new friendships while treasuring the memories of those we’ve lost.

Life’s full of paths, you see. When one door gets locked in your face and slammed, you go next door, which I did. And next door again. That’s how you have to live. Sometimes the paths lead you to unexpected places - even Jasper came up and lived with me. Dear old Jasper… I still can’t look at the book of photos that Mum’s given me. I tried to the other day and I had to put it down as I started to cry. But you can’t dwell on the sad things too much. You have to keep moving forward, finding new doors to open.