THURSDAY THOUGHTS - When You Are Beautiful at 99

For the last three years my husband and I have paid monthly visits to a woman who lives at the Seville Retirement Community. Bessie Carson will be 99 years old on April 2, and visiting her has blessed our lives. We always leave in a positive state of mind and it has to do with the feelings we experience while we are there. Allow me to explain.

Bessie stand about five feet tall and is just plump enough to keep her face from those endless prune wrinkles that many older women acquire as they age. She has that beautiful curly white gray hair and her eyes sparkle as we connect spirit to spirit. Those eyes seems to escort us into an obviously happy soul. She dresses in comfortable cotton house dresses with bright colors (the kind my grandma used to wear). As we seat ourselves on her couch, she settles in to her chair and covers her knees with her special quilt. We immediately feel a sense of comfortable peace.

Her apartment is small but there are pictures everywhere of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren; evidence of a life well lived. We feel a great sense of family unity there. Bessie changes the positions of these pictures from time to time, but there is one picture that never moves. It is a black and white photo of her daughter on her wedding day. This daughter died of cancer many years ago. As we see that picture each time we visit, we feel a sense of hope.

Bessie left her first husband and buried her second husband a few years back, so she knows in a very real way about loss. The last time we visited, she was carefully going through her jewelry. Her second husband was a jeweler by profession. She tells us about many of the pieces he made her and we feel her sense of pride.

An avid sports enthusiast, Bessie watches every BYU and Jazz game on her old TV. It isn't a flat screen or HDTV, but it seems fine for her. We have watched parts of many games with her. She even watches reruns of the old games. I feel sure she still watches Jimmer upon occasion! During these times, we feel her sense of enthusiasm.

Her son, Robert, visits every day and the last time we were there, he had a plastic sandwich bag laid out with four pills and a glass of water. We assure Robert that we will make sure Bessie takes them before we leave. This act of concern makes us feel a great sense of family love.

Some days Bessie feels better than others. During one particular visit, she said she was having stomach problems. She looks at us and with a chuckle says, "This is a pretty old stomach!" At this remark we reel her keen sense of humor.

As we prepare to leave we make sure Bessie takes her medicine and I remember a quote from my past. "You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen, but if you are beautiful at sixty, it is your own soul's doing." I would like to expand on that to say when you are beautiful at 99... well, when I grow up I want to be just like Bessie!

Kathy Christensen
Survivor
Guest Blogger