Aging Gracefully

written by SUE MOSTELLER

One of the sisters in my Congregation who taught me more than fifty years ago is now one hundred years old. Today she is blind and in a wheelchair. Whenever I see her at dinner, she is not too interested in the tiny serving of food on her plate, but she is totally engaged in conversation with others at the table. Her questions are penetrating, and she loves a stimulating conversation.
When newcasters came to the convent to interview her after Pope John Paul II died, they asked her to pretend to be saying her rosary and to look sad. She indignantly replied, "I'm sorry, but I talk to the Lord in a different way today! And why would I look sad that the Pope died? Didn't he lead an adventuresome life? Wasn't he amazing - the way he lived his public life to the end in such fragility? Isn't he an example of living fully and dying in his time? No, sir, I cannot put on a sad face. I feel so joyful that his mission is accomplished!"
I'm still a young'un at seventy-three years of age, but as I continue the aging process, I'd love to imitate that amazing woman, who fully accepts the necessary diminishment of her humanity while rejecting all forms of inner death!

- SUE MOSTELLER is retired, having lived for more than 30 years in the community of L'Arche Daybreak. She and Henri Nouwen were friends and Sue now works for the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust.