What do you think 80 looks like?

When I was a child, my great-grandmother lived with us.

At 80, she was strong as an ox.

I can picture her coming up from the basement on her toothpick legs with a load of laundry in her arms to help my mother.

She’d start every day by plunging her gnarled and knobby arthritic hands in scalding water and then smashing them onto the marble countertop, wringing life back into them as she yelled “move dammit,” so she could crochet, or fold clothes or cook.

All the while, she still seemed terribly old, and I think she believed that of herself as well.

She rarely left the house – never dressed up, never asked for or wanted anything (aside from chocolate and peace and quiet to watch her “programs.”

Most days she sat at the window with a rosary or prayer cards.

She told stories of the distant past (and being born in 1890, they were magical) but never mentioned a future.

It was clear to us all that she was at the end of her life.

She lived to 101.

When I look at the women I work with today, many of them over 75, I see a very different version of 80 – women who are blazing new trails and looking to their next act, eager to live every moment with passion and purpose.

I can’t help but wonder what it might have been like for my Noni if she knew that she had more than 2 decades of living left in her.

How old are you?

What will YOU do with the time you have left?