“No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”

“My kitchen linoleum is so black and shiny that I waltz while I wait for the kettle to boil. This pleasure is for the old who live alone.”

“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age.”

“You need to claim the events in your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done which may take some time you are fierce with reality.”

“We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience almost beyond our capacity at times but something to be carried high.”

“It is not easy to be sure that being yourself is worth the trouble but [we do know] it is our sacred duty.”

“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age.”

“No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”

“No matter how old a mother is she still watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”

“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality. When at last age has assembled you together, will it not be easy to let it all go, lived, balanced, over?”

“Difficulties are what makes it honorable and interesting to be alive.”