I was opening my freezer door to get another one of those mini Dove bars that we eat incessantly when we’re at Cape Cod and I noticed something new under a magnet on the freezer door.  It was my son’s AARP Card!  I couldn’t believe it.  I knew he was turning 50, the party was a few days away, I had already ordered the cake, discussed the menu with his wife, gotten him a gift.  But that card!

Sometime our own increasing age doesn’t grab us so much.  We know it’s coming, fret about it in advance, plan our celebration for the big ones.  But when your son, your younger child, the one you call “Little One,” (even though he’s over 6 feet tall) hits the big five -oh, it startles you into measuring your days.  Will you live to see his children married?  Will you ever  be a great grandmother?  

My kids know I’m growing old.  They help me a lot.  Ezra takes my arm on snowy stairs, Martha offers to take over things that are too hard for me, they come to Washington when we have operations, they call alot.  But theyre still kids to me, and didn’t bother to warn me that they too were getting older.

I think AARP should have a later membership date!