GRAND Magazine - Summer 2021 - 24

invisible grandparents
" Usta " is a phrase we seniors can't escape...
L
BY PAT HANSON
ike " would've " and " should've " and " could've " statements
that are useless after the fact and knowing that
what we language can influence the directions we take,
" used to " is an expression that we iterate far too often as
we elders, whether grandparents or not, face the inevitable
changes that come with aging.
* I used to be able to sleep through the
night, or more than 2-3 hours at a time,
instead of being awakened by bladder
pressure telling me I have 'to go,' where? To
the bathroom of course.
* I used to put a little make-up on to
cover the red skin blotches on my face; but
since seeing the same spots on movie stars
like Anthony Hopkins when he played the
Pope or The Father, I let that go.
* I used to blow dry my lifelong thin hair
with a thickener on it, but since it hardly
looks different in zoom close-ups I don't do
that anymore.
* I used to not need closed captions to
watch movies or TV series or the news, but
without expensive hearing aids, I need them
to understand even when talking personally
to anyone and half reading their lips.
* I used to be able to remember characters
in movies and plots long after I'd seen
them, but now I look for those updates on
them to see how old they are or if they are
still alive.
* I used to know or generally guess the
ages of movie stars or comedians like Jerry
Seinfeld but now (he's 63) I look them up to
see how long it's been since I watched his
show regularly it ran from 1989 to 1998; for
me that 23 years.
* I used to enjoy looking at actresses like
Nicole Kidman (now 53) or Meryl Streep
(now 71) or Goldie Hawn (now 75) but now
I keep wondering how they've made their
faces so wrinkle-free. Was it botox? Plastic
surgery?
* I used to not need the spell and grammar
check when I write pieces like this, but
now I'm dependent on it.
So let's take care of our bodies so aging
well happens and delete the 'ustas' from
our mind screen.
Dr. Pat Hanson is a seasoned health educator, public speaker. workshop
facilitator and novice comedienne. She is the author of Invisible
Grandparenting: Leave a Legacy of Love whether You Can be There or
Not and In Search of Stillness: My Final Frontier.
www.invisiblegrandparent.com
Facebook.com/Patricia Hanson
Facebook.com/Stillness: My Final Frontier
Facebook.com/Invisible Grandparent
24 GRAND Summer 2021

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GRAND Magazine - Summer 2021

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