The question
What worries you about getting older?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A newer fixed question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
That I didn’t appreciate the smaller joys in life.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 February 2025 source ↗
That my nose and chin will touch.
When my father was in his terminal year, I discussed death with him. I recall very clearly his relief that the cancer that was taking him was at least allowing him "all his marbles". Dementia in its varied forms is not like cancer. Dad saw the cancer in his pancreas as an invader. But Alzheimer's is me, unwinding, losing trust in myself, a butt of my own jokes and on bad days capable of playing hunt the slipper by myself and losing. You can't battle it, you can't be a plucky "survivor". It steals you from yourself. And I'm 60; that's supposed to be the new 40.
Having regrets.
Getting older doesn’t scare me.
Oversharing my personal life, but here we are, oversharing!
If I bothered to read instructions.
Happy Day by Sarkodie. I’m half Ghanaian, and in Ghana funerals really are a celebration of life. You dance and sing; it’s just a completely different vibe to over here in the UK. I would hope at my funeral that everyone’s on their feet, having a good time.
Analytical, extreme and playful.
My closest friend at uni – I sometimes retreat from life in quite an extreme way, without word. Back then, I didn’t really understand what I was doing.
I think that we dissolve into the soil and new things sprout from that.
Mark Steel, Esther Rantzen, Jon Sopel, Kate Humble, Nuala McGovern, Andrew Ridgeley
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