A few months ago, it happened for the first time. A woman whom I admire said simply to me, “You certainly are spry…” Now I ask you, what is the rest of that sentence? A few days later a person I did not know made the pointed comment, “You certainly are spry…” Now I must ask again, what is the rest of that sentence? Go ahead, say it, “for a person your age”.
Granting that I am nearing ninety, one wouldn’t expect cartwheels, and of course thank goodness I’ve passed the potential for early onset Alzheimer’s; but why can’t people finish that sentence? Or is it so obvious as to seem unnecessary?
Now I’m beginning to worry. It has been almost a year and it hasn’t happened again. It can’t mean that I am no long a person of “that age”. Does it mean that I’m no longer seen as sprightly, lively, spirited, vivacious and those other peppy words I found while naturally looking in the dictionary.
It is true that the wonders of modern science and wonder-pills costing over $500 a day have added spring to my step. By the way, thank you for paying for the pills. I certainly couldn’t afford them. In any event, perhaps I am no longer perceived as so old, so I am no longer seen (or at least reported) as spry.
One more thing. My research did provide one more daffy definition of spry. It was “as lively as a grig”. Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall’s when you get a chance.
In the meantime, I guess I’ll just stop worrying about being old or grig and just try to continue to recall “The Week I Was Spry”.