I'm reading a new book called The New Neighbor. The main character is a 90 year old woman. Very unusual.The author has done a good job portraying her. She still has her wits about her and rallies against her failing abilities, her need for her cane and her aches and pains. Her eyesight is obviously still good as she is a voracious reader, consuming five mystery novels a week from the local library, and she can spot her new neighbor across her lakefront property. Although she has lived alone all her adult life and is fiercely independent, loneliness is her secret, seldom admitted, pain. Most interesting is that although she can see herself doing it, she cannot help but be a bit cantankerous, guilt inducing, and stereotypically o-l-d.
The book is OK, but not all that consuming. Yet it got me thinking about what I'll be like at 90. I certainly doubt that I'll be living alone on a secluded mountaintop in Tennessee like our heroine. I'm guessing I will opt for a genteel, gracious retirement home with high tea and Sunday brunches and movie nights. The lady that sold us our house just wrote that she has chosen exactly such a place, The Historic Chamberlain, for her last years. I looked it up and it seems to fit her style and personality perfectly.
As long as my future home has an ample selection of mysteries I'll be OK...
;-)
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