Growing Old, Gracefully.

I just got over several weeks of not feeling chipper: no energy, frequent visits to my bathroom, lots of sneezing and blowing my nose, no appetite (not even for chocolate ice cream), being sleepy and sleepless at the same time (did I mention the frequent trips to my …

What strong utterance did your mom blurt out at you when you weren’t being the perfect child she had dreamed of raising? (Come on now, your mother must have lost it every now and then.) My mother, Irene, valued gumption over any other positive trait. Just sitting or standing …

Lucy, a good friend, tells me she wants everyone to like her. She gets downhearted if she suspects someone doesn’t warm up to her affable way. I tell Lucy I fix a wonderful chicken vegetable soup based on suggestions I’ve received from many people over the years. I …

Simple tasks that were second nature to me for decades have now become challenges. Putting my socks on in the morning is one of them. Either my legs got longer or my arms shorter, but now there are often a few inches separating my foot from the outstretched sock shaking in …

Looking back on my sports career, only a few minor obstacles kept me from being a famous pro athlete in either basketball or football. I close my eyes and see visions of me being interviewed by ESPN or signing autographs for all the little kids who have dreams of being just …