GROWING OLD GRACEFULLY
I try to grow old gracefully
As some people do I am told,
But how do they do it? Will you tell me
For I try, but I can't stay young and grow old.
For there's a crook in my back,
And my joints all crack,
And my hair is dull and gray.
I slip past a glass, without a glance
For my face is all wrinkled each way.
And when I think of my children, three,
and their children which really are ten
And the fifteen more in generation four
I really can't fool myself then.
But still I can laugh at a really good joke
And am happy as happy can be
For you see, I have so many dear ones to love,
And so many dear ones to love me.
Mary Boyd Bean Arnold (Aunt Mate)
B. Mar 10, 1866 Clay twp., LaGrange Co., In
D. December 13, 1964 Sturgis, Michigan
(daughter of Nancy Carnahan and Arion Boyd)
Taken from Driftwood, a magazine of verse, February of 1945, when she was 79 years old.