Savoring old age with two songs

By Herbert Vego

TWO of the songs that I love to listen to – and occasionally sing during karaoke gigs — are “Words Don’t Come Easy” and “Yesterday When I Was Young” which, I believe, are familiar to my fellow “oldies”.

“Words, don’t come easy to me,” the first song begins.

That’s now how I find myself whenever asked to speak on any occasion. The reason is because, at 76, I usually forget the words that used to spill out spontaneously.

“Senior moments” is how I defend myself. “I think slow now.  That’s why I would rather write than talk.”

“Yesterday, when I was young,” begins the other song, “the taste of life was sweet, like rain upon my tongue…”

I guess my fellow “young once” love that song, too.

I often remember my youth while sighing over the question, “Where have all the good old days gone?” It seemed only yesterday when I was aspiring to be a journalist. I became one and I still am.

I used to wonder whether it’s a disadvantage that I can’t afford to retire.  Writing for a living is the only job I know. To retire is to stop earning money; and to lose whatever is left in my vocabulary.

Not everybody makes money at retirement age.

I prefer not to regret. I delight in looking back to that distant day in 1969 when, as a teenage Journalism student, I visited the office of the defunct Weekly Nation magazine in Quezon City to contribute an article. I met its editor, Consorcio Borje (now deceased), whose short stories I had read in a literary anthology. He looked very old, probably in his late 70s.

Now I imagine myself in his shoes, having turned 76. I started writing for a living in Manila in 1970 or 57 years ago.

But I am also such a “veteran” of many life-threatening diseases that I need to spend much o0f my income on nutritious food and medicine. As the saying goes. “No money, no honey.”

There was a time when I collapsed while trying to get up in bed due to a sudden attack of vertigo that required hospitalization. I had to cancel a foreign trip and start saving for it all over again.

The vitamin advertisement “Bawal magkasakit” strikes at the core of the bitter reality that the average senior citizens eventually turn poor in this country.

My late parents, both educators, had exhausted their retirement money that way. My father died of cancer; my mom, of an accident.

Anyway, it’s good to know that none of my ascendants had caught dementia that might have afflicted succeeding generations. I have accepted the fact that loss of memory – as in forgetting a password – still belongs to “senior moments”.

To me as a journalist, that means more memories to write about.

-oOo-

RAZON GROUP DOES RELIEF WORK

THE Razon Group of Companies, through MORE Power, PrimeElectric, ICTSI Foundation, Solaire, and Bloomberry Cultural Foundation Inc., continues to extend relief assistance to communities affected by the recent earthquake in General Santos City and South Cotabato.

Our good friend Jonathan Cabrera, MORE Power’s spokesperson, is the leader of the team.

Judging from his Facebook posts, his mission is a big success despite the occurrences of aftershocks that keep him awake in unfamiliar places many times at night.

We are sure that JonCab, being a veteran of many earthquakes, has mastered the art of coping – of course, with God as his Shepherd.