Bowed, but unbroken: Paul Thomas Moore writes about “bracing” for old age
“In My Father’s House” / By Paul Thomas Moore
I have a new appreciation for the ability tie to my shoes. The thing is, I don’t have that ability at the moment, at least with my left shoe, as that leg is in a brace and I can’t reach my foot.
Paul’s brother sent him a long shoehorn, but it can’t tie his laces. (The Catholic Post/Paul Thomas Moore)
When people ask what happened, like George Washington, I cannot tell a lie – it was a laundry accident.
On hearing this, some people tease this that will teach me not to help with the laundry. While there are takeaways one can draw from any experience, I don’t anticipate my wife will encourage that particular one.
Here’s how it happened: we have a stackable washer and dryer with the dryer about shoulder height. I was transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer, standing up from a crouch when my head bumped the dryer door, which I had forgotten was open.
AGE CHANGES THINGS
Startled, I doubled down suddenly on the left knee and the tendon connecting the kneecap to the quadriceps thigh muscle snapped. A freak accident, but the kind that’s more likely to happen as one ages.
The tendon was surgically reattached and I’ve started therapy and it’s healing well with God’s help, but the reality is the rehabilitation is lengthy.
So for the time being my wife is on double (if not triple) duty.
She has to put on my left sock in the morning, and although my brother sent me a long shoehorn apparatus that helps to put the shoe on, it can’t manage the lace, and so my wife has to tie that as well (I can’t use slip on shoes as I have a lift on one shoe).
Can’t trim my toenails on that foot either, or drive for the time being, or help with much of anything around the house.
I’m not being led to crucifixion as Jesus was foretelling of Peter, but the more modest crosses of age are coming into clearer focus.
As Jesus said to Saint Peter, “When you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21: 18).
I’m not being led to crucifixion as Jesus was foretelling of Peter, but the more modest crosses of age are coming into clearer focus. I have visited nursing homes and have seen others being taken care of, and now have a better sense of how that feels.
WE DON’T “OWN” GOOD HEALTH
I am learning a renewed appreciation for how everything I have or am able to do is a gift. I may think I “own” my good health, but that illusion can be instantly dispelled with an unexpected lab test, or in my case, the bump of my noggin on the dryer door.
And the result can be a humbling loss of independence. Needing help tying my laces was one thing as a child of five; it feels a lot different as a senior of 65+.
I trust and am thankful for my excellent medical care, employer accommodations, and of course my loving and patient wife, but I am learning anew to “trust in the Lord with all your heart …. and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3: 5-6). Those straight paths are even more appreciated when one is using a cane.
Paul Thomas Moore is a staff writer for The Catholic Post Online. He and his wife Mary Louise attend St. Mary of Lourdes in Germantown Hills, Illinois. He can be reached at pmoore@cdop.org
