Thank you for the life lesson question, “What is the one thing you did not plan for when you got older?”
One thing that I didn’t plan for was our health. When we are young, we think that we have decades of good health. Everyone of us plan to live to retirement and to enjoy retirement. That is not the case for everyone as it was for me.
My wife suffer a hemorrhagic stroke in 1999 after being married for 26 years. I am thankful that my wife survived the stroke and is relatively healthy. We are able to travel and enjoy life. She is not bed ridden or dependent on a wheelchair or walker. It hasn’t been easy to say the least as we have been married for nearly 50 years. We’re grateful to see our grandchildren and seeing the first grandchild attend college this Fall.
As grandparents, we may have 5 to 10 years of good health if we take care of ourselves. It’s hard keeping that cholesterol, blood pressure or diabetes under control. We love to eat, but we also know what we eat and how much we eat is critical to our well-being.
Lesson learned is “Don’t count your chicken until they hatch.” A person is a fool who thinks that she or he is in control of one’s life. We are not in control for we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. For us as Christians, it is a good remainder that it is not just about enjoying retirement, but doing the will of God.
-Kingston