Still teaching at 99

No, this is not about some amazing near-centenarian who is still in the workforce slogging it out with the rest of us!  It does involve a woman I met a few weeks ago who recently turned 99 and is still teaching valuable lessons to everyone she meets.  She teaches by example.  Not everyone understands or appreciates the lessons as they receive them and I found myself recognizing my learnings only after some reflection. 

So what were the lessons?

• think positive
• say nice things
• smile a lot
• touch is important

When listed like that, they seem rather mundane, but let me provide more context and you may see why I find them so profound. 

I'll just start today with the first - "think positive"

Margaret is her name, she was born in 1912 and lived through the depression and has always been a positive person with a can-do approach to life.  When she was in her mid-nineties, she had a fall and injured her head leading to the need for brain surgery.  Post operation, she worked to regain her independence and eventually she moved back into her home where she had lived independently for nearly 40 years.  Unfortunatly this was short-lived as her memory was challenged either by the injury or in combination with some form of dementia and memory loss.  She eventually moved to a nursing home and has been there about two years now - which brings us to my visit a few weeks ago...

She was tired and did not recognize her son who was trying to introduce me.  She did not know that her mother or siblings have all passed or where exactly she was.  She does not understand much about her surroundings, her past, or her current life.  She could recall the name of one of her sisters and that for siblings "there were a bunch of us".   I imagine this type of environment with limited connections to past or present could be very frightening, cold and negative. 

Despite this, during our conversations she regularly inserted comments of positivity.  When walking slowly to a chair she said "we'll get there",  when talking about birthday cake she said "that will be nice" , when talking about something difficult she said "we'll get through it" on the subject of work she said, "well we've all got to work hard at it".   When asked how old she felt, she said "I don't know, maybe 29?"

With so much of her memory and history erased, positve responses and affirmations like these still came easily to the surface!  My belief is that these must be so core, so foundational and automatic in her being that she still has them with her.  She has used them (and still does) to motivate and provide strength for herself and others through the difficult times in life. 


Lesson learned!




Do Positively Great Things!



Ed Sullivan, PMP