I want to be like this when I'm older

Tonight while I was out delivering Scentsy orders to people,  I got a chance to visit with a sweet (and feisty!) 90 year old lady.  She has ordered Scentsy from me before and the last time I dropped stuff off, she asked if i wanted to come in for coffee but I had to say no due to the fact that I had my 3 kids in the car!  So when she called me to order again, I knew that I would make an effort to go there without my kids so I could get a chance to visit with her.  I could tell that she is someone who is lonely (she lives alone) and just loves having people to talk to.

So when I dropped off her order tonight and she asked if I wanted coffee (at 7pm...not good for me!!) I said, "Of course!" 

Sitting with her at her kitchen table, listening to her sharing stories from her life,  I was just in awe listening to her sharing so many different experiences and events she has had.  I loved listening to her share about living and raising her kids on a horse farm and all her experiences with training horses.  I laughed as she shared silly stories of things her now grown kids did when they were little.  She has experienced so much!

She also opened up and shared some sad stories.  Stories of how her daughter lost her husband and she had 3 children to raise.  I teared up as she shared about her husband of 60+ years who was living in a nursing home with alzheimers.  She shared about the health issues she's had and how she was in ICU in an induced coma for 6 days and now has to have a "bag".

This woman has experienced so much.  But one thing that just really touched me about this conversation was her attitude.  She, who has experienced so much heartache and loneliness, kept looking at me with a smile and said, "It's been a good life.  God has been so good." 

I have known a lot of older people who grow more and more cynical and negative as they grow older.  You know them, the "Grumpy Old Men (or women!)" who have allowed experiences and life situations to harden them and make them complain and they speak with negativity.

I want to be like this lady I talked with today.  A lady who chose to look at the blessings in her life and not focus on the heartache.  A woman who had every "right" to be hardened or bitter about some of the hands she's been dealt in life, but instead, she chose to be thankful.  She chose to share both the good and the bad with me but with such a gentle and positive attitude.  She was such an encouragement to me and I came away from this conversation thinking, "I want to be like her when I am older".