Serious content alert. A friend is mourning the loss of an aunt, another friend has signed the hospice paperwork for her father, and I received notice not long ago of the unexpected death of a high school friend. As Baby Boomers, we look in the mirror and the face we see looking back can startle us at times, or we suddenly realize an event that was important to us actually happened fifty years prior. Fifty years? That’s half a century, for crying out loud. How is that possible? And for those of us who have grandchildren (or great-grandchildren), it hardly seems possible you can be in a crowded room and be the oldest one present. Or you’re at a social event and listen to someone make a comment about dreading their upcoming fortieth birthday. Forty, what’s to worry about forty?

Momentarily setting aside our own aging issues, few of us have much longer with our parents or other relatives and friends who belong to “The Greatest Generation.” It’s a fact we can ignore without for one moment altering the reality of what will happen within the next few years. Yes, there will be those who tick over that century mark, but even with that, many will be diminished in their mental capabilities. The point to this post is one I have made before and was, of course, the foundation of my book, Your Room at the End: Thoughts About Aging We Want to Avoid. We can no more avoid this stage of our lives than we can tell the sun to not set today or rise in the morning. If there is someone who matters to you who is aging and whom you want to see, talk to, or otherwise contact, do so. If a visit is not possible for whatever reason, pick up the phone, or go buy a card/write a letter. Yes, you can still write letters in this day of email. It doesn’t require a special occasion.