Learning I am Old

There comes a point in our lives when we discover we are older than we think we are. Hopefully older than we act. I had two such occasions in the past few days. One humorous. One not at all humorous.

I'll start with the serious one, and end with the lighter one. The serious one is very serious. My really, really good friend Carin has leukemia. The doctors can get her into remission, but can ONLY cure her with a bone marrow transplant. 

By now you are rolling your eyes and saying, "how does Carin's situation make YOU feel old? This isn't about you!" And you would be right to think that, and to cast judgement on me. How this makes me feel old is the bone marrow registry folks will only test potential donors between the ages of 18 and 44. At 47, I am too old. I can't remember ever being told I was too old to be able to do something. All those years of wishing to be older so I could drive, or go away to college were wasted.

For Carin and others, if you are between the ages of 18 and 44 you can Be The Match. Carin is humorously blogging her adventures HERE with such topics as Mr. Fancy Pants Man and, on a more serious note, milestones (such as her husband's birthday) that continue to happen while she spends a month getting her numbers up so she can come home. 

In order to be tested go to https://bethematch.org . It is easy to become someone's super hero.

Now for the lighter story. My niece's elementary school is launching a program called GrandPals where older members of the community are partnered up with youngsters to read to them. Guess what the minimum age is to be a GrandPal? Ding ding ding if you guessed 47! Way to make me feel old!

Back to the serious ... please read the Be the Match website to learn more about saving someone's life.