Book Review: Shut Up and Live!

A trip to the library is a weekly must for me.  When I get there, the first thing I do is head for the New and Notables section.  There's always something cool.

This week it was Shut Up and Live! by Marion P. Downs, a ninety-three year old tennis champ.

An amazing woman, she took up down-hill skiing when she turned fifty (I seriously thought I was too old.  I'm having a rethink.) and for her ninetieth birthday?  Went skydiving.

Intrigued yet?

So many people have asked her how she's lived so long and so well that she decided to write a book.

It's a quick read (only 128 pages), but inspiring (and funny, too).

Having lived with and helped my mother in her last years of life, old age doesn't hold any huge terror for me.

It's not that having seen the progression of infirmity, incontinence and death, I thought to myself, "I could totally handle that." But rather, having seen the help and support that was given to her, the love that surrounded her, I think, with that kind of help I could maybe be brave.

So the dying bit? Covered.

But in the quest to live fully and joyfully on into old age (I know, I know - I have a long way to go yet), it's nice to have a guide.