Wishes Are Ageless
By Harriet May Savitz
www.harrietmaysavitz.com 

She is 93 years old and she just purchased a Trailer.  She told me when we met that she always wanted a Trailer.  It was not that she needed one to live in.  She had a lovely extension built for her in one of her children's homes..  She was happy there.  There was a ramp for her wheelchair and she could come and go as she wanted.  But somehow that wasn't enough for her.  "You see," she said.  "I had this dream for a long time about owning a Trailer."

And so she bought one.  It sits in a Trailer park about 10 minutes away from her home.  She visits it on week-ends and sometimes even during the week.  One of her children, herself nearing sixty, lives with her but goes to work and leaves this woman alone with her medical alarm necklace about her neck.  "I got this for the children," she explains pointing to the alarm..  "To make them feel better about my being alone here."

She is not afraid to be alone.  She has made friends with others in the Trailer park and they have offered to help her out if she ever needs it.  Most of the time, she tells me, she watches television, cooks, reads, and enjoys her independence.  When she talks about her life in the Trailer, her eyes light up with youthful wonder.  As if she can't believe it herself.  That she has done such a thing so late in life. That she has made her wish come true.

This Trailer did not come easy to her.  Six operations and the necessity to use a wheelchair got in the way for awhile.  "There are just a few steps to get into my Trailer," she tells me, "but I did not want a ramp.  I want to walk those steps.  It's good for me."

My own dream-come-true was the yellow boat I bought years ago for my son.  It sat in my driveway and each time I looked at it, I smiled.  It was my wish, to give my son this gift, and it represented my ability to make that dream come true.  The boat went out to sea many times and I mentally along with it.  It took me to places I would never be and adventures I would never experience.  Each time I watched it trailing up the street toward the Marina, I would be amazed that my dream had been attained.

But many years have passed.  And there have been no dreams since.

No wishes aching for fulfillment.   Nothing that excited me.   When I heard the story about the Trailer, I could think of nothing else that day.   What did I want to do that much at this time in my life?  Being twenty years younger than the woman I had met, there was much time for me to do something I might never have done before. Something that would wipe age from my eyes and replace it with youth.  Had not the radio announcer informed me just that day that the life expectancy was rising to the nineties?  Perhaps I had twenty more years left and many undiscovered dreams with them.

And so I began my own search.  I was not certain where it would lead me.  Each day when I arose I thought of that Trailer and the woman in it.  Using every day of her 93 years to the fullest.  Not afraid to dare.  Unafraid to do something others might not understand.

It did not take me long to find my own opportunity.   Today I bought a mango-colored ukulele.  It does not matter that I do not know a thing about ukuleles. 

My ukulele makes me feel I am young enough to learn.