Yep, I’m 73, Please Don’t Call Me Elderly - Chris Westerkamp

Yep, I’m 73, Please Don’t Call Me Elderly - Chris Westerkamp

I get this twinge. Reading, as so many people have, news of the COVID-19 virus as it progresses. Tracking the stats of the battle in different countries and states including my Rhode Island. The twinge comes with references to the fact that older people are more vulnerable to contracting the virus and less likely to survive when they do. Somehow, the phrase senior citizen does not trigger the twinge in the many articles I’ve read over the last six weeks, but elderly generates full on vibrations in my brain.

Last August, before the virus descended upon us, I was navigating my second retirement. I’ve worked since I was young, a legacy from my parents who thought all their children should start doing some form of work as early as possible. I’ve always identified with my work and over more than fifty years, mostly enjoyed it.

I’ve come to grips with getting older probably because I don’t think of myself as older. Age for me is a mental state and I feel alert and young. I’m active. I’m a voracious reader. I play music. I take on challenging home improvement projects that require heavy lifting – thankfully, those are tapering off since we downsized two years ago.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

I have good relationships with younger people including my son who is a professional chef and pastry chef who is on his way to getting his MBA at twenty-eight. We share a love of cooking, music, entertainment, movies, and current events. I never feel I’m an older person when I’m talking to a younger person. I’ve maintained relationships with dozens of people of all ages who worked for me in the media business going back to the 1970s and age differences just does not enter into the equation of how we relate.

So when articles and stories describe people sixty-five or older as elderly, I just get that twinge. It’s not that I don’t recognize I am not as physically strong and flexible as I was only five or ten years ago or that my sleep patterns have changed, or that I get up several times at night to answer more frequent calls of mother nature, or that I take a least six meds a day to control various conditions, some related to age. I get all that but I don’t feel anything like the elderly.

I can’t escape the reality of physical changes and challenges. There are aches and pains and limitations. I discovered apitherapy (bee stings) several years ago when arthritis started affecting my knees and it’s been a great help. It’s also been sixteen years since I survived cancer.  

I reckon the difference between senior citizen and elderly is one’s state of mind. It seems the COVID-19 doesn’t distinguish between the two. There goes that twinge again.

Chris Westerkamp is retired after a career in media spanned four decades in television, radio, internet, and print.