Best Advice Poem by Jim Yerman

The best advice I ever received about growing old…I offer now to you:
It came from an old married couple…She had just turned 80…he was 82

You are going to love this couple… before I met them I was told
and that was true as their energy and their love was a wonder to behold.

They would drive across the country to see their children and grandchildren for they could think of nothing greater…
The young 80 year old did all the driving while the old man was the navigator.

She pictured herself a race car driver…for her…speed was all the rage…
"When I get on the highway, " she'd say, "I like to drive my age."

She was proud of her driving accomplishments…how she was always early…never late…and she bragged how'd she'd gotten a speeding ticket in almost every state.

One day they stopped long enough for me to ask, "Hey, you two…what's your secret…won't you help me see…the mystery to all your energy…the key to your vitality? "

They smiled at one another and immediately I was caught by the way they gave me this advice by finishing each other's thought.

"Life is precious." He said. "We plan to enjoy it or as long as we can."
We figure at our age." She continued. "If we stop we might not get started again."

Eventually, as Emily Dickinson wrote, (just one of her many gems)
‘Because they would not stop for death…it kindly stopped for them.'

But not until they blessed me with the advice I follow every time my two feet meet the road….
given to me by an older couple
long ago…
who in their many years together…
always loved and never slowed.