@starchy- I know, it can be a lonely place, this aging thing. Aging sneaks up on us way ahead of when we might expect it. One day we are in grade school then college and maybe a higher educational degree. Then we work and marry have kids and grandkids. We spend a lot of time living and unless we have a major life-threatening disease we might only briefly think about it. Then, wham, we are oldish. See, I can't say that I'm old. My body might be aging or "old" {cough} but my mind isn't. I might be more mature and hopefully wiser but my heart tells me that I'm young and after almost 23 years of lung cancer I like to say this. My thinking and trying to get some words back is tiresome but so what? I can't lift weight poundage that I used to, so I go lighter. And I might have a return (I'm in what you might call remission) of my cancer, but so what? It can be zapped and I will go on and on. Being oldish gives me the choice of acting like a kid and having oldish wisdom. If I keep moving, and read, and doing crossword puzzles, and have loving friends, and a close family I might never be old, just oldish!

I know what you mean about feeling that no ones knows you anymore. I have lost a lot of family and friends that I knew back when and somehow when they died that part of me died too. The part that was my youth, the fun we had, the little things we would do that set us apart from everyone else. But, ya know, those are called,memories and thank God we have them. I also know what you mean about no one to share those memories with, that's the sad part. I find myself chuckling to myself with memories of things we did back then. The people I shared those experiences with have gone but the memories for me is still there. I guess, it's a double edge sword, On one hand it's nice to remember but with no one to share them with it becomes sad and worthless. I have tried to share some of my fun times with my grandchildren but they look at me like I have two heads, fun things we did then just doesn't seem fun to them. When I tell them we didn't have video games, computers or cell phones back then, they wonder how we ever lived through it, much less have any fun. Buy alas, facing the facts of life sometimes is difficult. Thanks why I think it's important, at least for me, that I have found a group of people that can relate to what it means to age and all the good and bad that goes along with it. I have found this group invaluable to my mental health. Hang in the sweetie, we're in this together.