Simple as That

1. One dose of Thyroid medicine (while lying in bed)
2. One cup of coffee with a splash of French Vanilla Coffee-Mate (Upon further review, a more accurate description would be: “Coffee-Mate with a splash of coffee”)
3. One Vitamin C tablet
4. One Vitamin D tablet
5. One Multi-vitamin (regardless that he’s heard they are no longer necessary)
6. One Fish oil capsule (but he’s always on the hunt for Cod Liver Oil and rotates that in when he finds it)
7. Two Juice Plus tablets (one veggie and one fruit)
8. One Saw Palmetto supplement (for a healthy prostate)

These eight “ingredients” are my friend Bob’s elixir of health. He’s 95-years- old and I gotta say, it appears to be working! He walks well, talks well, and his memory is flawless. He’s started to give up on the monotony of modern medicine and gets annoyed that his Doctor asks him to come in once a year to get a new Thyroid prescription, even though he’s been taking the same thing for over 30 years. He doesn’t seem to interested in going to the dentist anymore either. “Why does it matter at this point?” he asks. Frankly, I see his point. I encourage him to see a doctor for pain relief when he has it, but it’s miraculously rare. Right now he does has some residual pain in one wrist from the carpal tunnel surgery he got a few years ago. He’s thinking about trying acupuncture instead of traditional medicine though because he has no interest in another surgery at this age. He does his own version of a chiropractic adjustment every day when he gets out of bed. A shake to the right, a shake to the left, and his hips are all loosened up for the day!

One thing that I love the most about Bob is that I have never, not once, been around him and not heard at least one story of the love of his life, Louise. Even when he was telling me about his carpal tunnel surgery he recalls the timing of events based around her. “Well, we moved here seven years ago. That first year I was so focused on taking care of Louise that I wouldn’t have gotten the surgery then, and it’s been six years since Louise passed… So, I guess I would have had the surgery around five years ago.” When I responded in surprise that it’s only been seven years since they moved here, because from my perspective, it feels like so much longer, he was shocked. “Longer??” he said, “to me it seems like just yesterday we were together in California.”

I’m not surprised he feels that way. He thinks about her all the time. He followed up with the story on how they met. It’s a story I’m very familiar with. He’s written it to me in email, in letters, and told it to me in person on so many occasions. I never get tired it. The way he remembers how she once put her hand on his shoulder when he was eating at the diner she worked at. He took that body language as a clue that perhaps she might return the attraction he felt toward her. He promptly bought tickets to a show at the high-school and asked her to go with him. She said yes, and they never looked back. He remembers walking her home from dates and sitting on the stoop of her house. She was 22 and renting a room in a house that was about a mile from his. One day, she asked him if he wanted to travel to Louisiana with her to meet her brothers. Her parents had both passed away when she was younger so her brothers were her only family. He went along with her and they got married. “simple as that,” he reflects.

I’ve yet to encounter anything quite as “simple as that” but it sounds like a good start to me. I think Bob’s breakfast combination might be a factor in why he’s so healthy at 95 but I think 65 years with the love of his life is the true contributor. That morning routine may provide energy and ache-relief but I believe it’s his devout nightly ritual of saying “goodnight” to his passed partner that provides meaning, comfort and love.