My great grandmother used to say, “Let the young folks listen to what the elders say and when danger is near get out of the way…” Hmm…?
Now I get, understand it.
She was a nice… great old lady who lived deep into her nineties… The people whom I wish I could connect with to ask how old she was when her Life’s time ran out. How I sometimes wish I could give her a phone call.
So, I had a session with my doctor a couple weeks ago, one of my recurring meetings with her to determine my present state of health under her medical care and guidance.
I always tell people that I treat my body and health as a piece of machinery that endures a lot of mileage and punishment almost every day, and as such needs regular mechanic or other inspection… repair to ensure that all the parts are functioning at 100 per cent.
Oh yes, my recent session with Doctor XYZ was from her mind and mouth to my ears, mind, mouth, words… and your eyes, as it were.
People familiar with my family (on both paternal/maternal sides) have spoke of what might be construed/interpreted as manifested mental episodes… As such my recent medical diagnosis is hardly a surprise. It’s a natural outcome. As the old saying goes: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
One can then say I’m still a green apple in the process of ripening to its eventual harvesting colour. That’s not to say that I’m on the verge of going off the wall, or on the verge of suffering life impeding mental frailties along the rest of what I always thought would be some semblance of longevity, given my late mother’s long… or extended life span. She died in late August 2020 at 93.
For some inexplicable reason, I always thought I would tread in her footsteps, her long life’s path. Although nine, ten decades of life, plus longer in some instances, have almost become a norm for many beings so far in this twenty-first century, where becoming 90 or more, have seemingly become a norm rather than an exception.
Truth is, in my mother’s situation, ninety-three years of life and in fairly good health was a life bonus of sorts. In fact, something It’s a longevity bonus of sorts. But the end was inevitable; all good things must end, and they did. Nine plus fairly good decades of life lived. Which I sometimes I believe I was destined for, and was trying to emulate? Hmmm…
People familiar with my family (on both paternal/maternal sides) have spoke of what might be construed/interpreted as manifested mental episodes… As such my recent medical diagnosis is hardly a surprise. It’s a natural outcome. As the old saying goes: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
One can then say I’m still a green apple in the process of ripening to its eventual harvesting colour. That’s not to say that I’m on the verge of going off the wall, or on the verge of suffering life impeding mental frailties along the rest of what I always thought would be some semblance of longevity, given my late mother’s long… or extended life span. She died in late August 2020 at 93.
Safe living and good habits, etc., fate will determine the rest I’ve been told by some elders with God’s intervention as well as my elders (the female ones in particular, playing a central and major, including spiritually).
My great-grandmother and grandmother on my maternal side, were good for that with their recurring religious inculcating from time to time.
Speaking to people over the years who are more familiar than I am with people on both sides of my family trees, I’ve been able to gather enough information to spin these words into some semblance of literary family tree to put my current condition and recent health revelations into some perspective as it were. We all have an origin after all. Allow life to play out as it should, would, and will.
So never mind the gossiping. Ask questions…
I haven’t received a death sentence, just a doctor’s caution and other’s findings. There’s more expertise/information to come.
In the meantime, there’s life to live so until further notice I’ll be grazing in the field of life.
Staring down a family mental trait
