Multimixer, which could whip up five milkshakes at once. Though the invention was designed for drug stores with soda fountains, Kroc had more success selling the device to hamburger joints and drive-ins, which is how he met Maurice and Richard McDonald. The McDonald brothers owned a few restaurants in California and Arizona, but Kroc suggested they franchise their operation on a national scale and volunteered to take on the task. Seven years later, he became the owner of a franchise that would sell more than a billion hamburgers by 1963. Today, McDonald’s is the most successful fast food operation in the world.
• As a young housewife, Julia Child was not a particularly good cook—she noted that she didn’t even know what a shallot was. When she moved to France with her husband, she began looking for something to occupy herself and decided to learn how to make French cuisine. She studied at the Cordon Bleu cooking school and fell in love. She once wrote, “To think it has taken me 40 years to find my true passion.” It took another decade and numerous rejections before she published her famous book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and began her long-running PBS program The French Chef at the age of 51.
• In 1994, when he was nearly 76, Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa in the first election open to all races in that country’s history. After a life-long struggle against racial segregation and nearly 27 years in prison, Mandela became instrumental in abolishing apartheid in his homeland. He was an activist, politician, lawyer, and philanthropist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and worked to end poverty through the Nelson Mandela Foundation until his death at the age of 95.
• After teaching at St. Mary’s School for Girls in India for 17 years, Mother Teresa experienced what she referred to as “the call within the call” to work with the poor in the streets of Calcutta. At age 38, she left the Sisters of Loretto to move into the slums, where she started a school and tended to the sick and dying. At the age of 40, she established the Missionaries of Charity, which eventually became a worldwide organization consisting of more than 4,500 sisters running hospices, homes for the sick, soup kitchens, orphanages, and schools. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 69 and worked tirelessly until her death at age 87.
• Popular actor, film director, and producer Clint Eastwood is still working hard at the age of 83. He began his career in 1959, but didn’t receive an Academy Award until he was 62 years old. At 73, he launched his critically acclaimed directing career, which earned him another Oscar. Eastwood sums up his philosophy about aging in this quote: “As we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping our minds active and open.”
Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence and signed it at the age of 70, which incidentally was the same age as Ronald Reagan when he was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States—just two more examples of late-in-life achievements. But you don’t have to be famous to be successful; every day, ordinary folks are finding passion and purpose in the second half of their lives and redefining what it means to age well.
The Importance of Planning
Like most things in life, aging well does not happen by accident—it requires some planning. The following chapters cover key aspects of preparing for each decade of your senior years, including money matters, legal issues, health factors, and tips for staying vibrant. We cannot control every element of the aging process, but we can positively influence many facets. By avoiding unhealthy habits and taking better care of ourselves, we can stave off many ailments that lead to disabilities, reduce the quality of our senior years, and shorten lives. By saving for retirement, we can make our senior years more fulfilling and enjoyable. And, by putting our affairs in order, we can reduce some of the stress associated with growing older, make more informed decisions, and ensure that our wishes are carried out. In other words, we can choose to age well.
Poet Maya Angelou wrote, “Living life is like constructing a building: if you start wrong, you’ll end wrong.” As we embark on our senior years, it’s a good idea to start with a plan or blueprint of sorts. Along the way we’re sure to make alterations, add details here and there, and perhaps undertake some major renovations—all the while steadily building the second half of our lives. We don’t know what the finished project will look like, but let’s begin by laying a strong foundation.
Words of Wisdom . . .
‘For three generations, Lydia’s family has lived in the same community, and with nearly a century of life behind her, Lydia has seen some tremendous transformations.
“I was recently asked to speak about life here in the 1920s at the library, and I’ve also participated in discussion panels at the university,” said Lydia proudly. “I guess when you’re as old as I am you become a walking history book! This used to be a small town, where you knew all the shopkeepers by name and all the kids went to the same school. Times have certainly changed, but I’m just so grateful to have lived to see so many truly amazing things in the world.”
As schoolchildren, Lydia and her classmates were invited to help fill up seats at the new university stadium and cheer on the football team—a venue that now routinely holds well over 100,000 fans. She also recalled graduating during the Great Depression, when the school had no money for caps and gowns, and learning the importance of service from her parents who were both active in the community; her father organized the first African-American Boy Scouts troop in town and her mother worked with young girls at the local community center. Lydia married when she was 19 and had four children—she also became a member of the “sandwich generation” long before that term was coined.
“I had taken a course in home nursing, so when my mother had a stroke, and then my father became ill, I took charge of their care,” she recounted. “My children were young at the time, so for many years, my only activities were taking care of family, which is really the most important thing in life.”
After Lydia’s parents passed away, she took a job planning and preparing meals for a local doctor and his family, and eventually worked in his office, as well. Her favorite job, however, was managing the dining room of a well-known social club, where she worked for 20 years. But retirement didn’t slow Lydia down.
In addition to panel discussions, she is on the church committee to plan monthly senior activities, and she participates in all the trips and events. “I’ve always been active,” Lydia said. “As a girl, I was on the track team, and played baseball and field hockey. We had no cars, so we walked everywhere. Now, I use a walker and don’t get around as well as I used to, but I don’t let that get me down. Even if you’re slow, it doesn’t mean you should stop moving!”
When it comes to her longevity, Lydia is a firm believer in eating well and staying active. As for her remarkable vibrancy at 97, she offers this advice, “Have a positive attitude, and surround yourself with good friends and family. Don’t lose interest in things or close yourself off. I like to stay current on social issues and politics. I like to read, and I’m still a big football fan!”’
