This year, I “turned 25” for the third time.
I still can’t wrap my head around being 75 years old. Yes, there are health issues. It comes with age, of course, but in my mind and spirit I’m still a 25-year-old, and I know other seniors who feel exactly the same way.
You are only as old as you let yourself feel, right?
I’m grateful I had a mother who was far ahead of her time. She married later in life than most women of her generation. She was the last of nine children in her family and ended up managing her parents’ home and caring for her diabetic mother. Her takeaway was to teach my sister and I to be independent and self-sufficient.
Today, my sister, Beth Ellen Fromm, is the executive director of the Desert Film Society in Palm Springs, Calif. Age doesn’t stop her from pursuing her passions, nor does it stop me.
We grew up in a household where the dinner table was sacrosanct — no TV or newspapers. We were a family that talked and shared our daily stories. The family table was love personified. It’s no wonder that food is my passion in life.
Before there was the Food Network, I organized cooking classes taught by chefs in their restaurant kitchens and even had an early morning cooking segment once a week on WBAL-TV. I still maintain my business that offers public relations, marketing and food styling, all within the hospitality industry.
I have remained on top of social media with not only my accounts but those of my clients. About five years ago, I met a young lady and we exchanged Instagram handles. When I told her mine (@daracooks), she looked at me and said, “You’re the OG!” (which, of course, means ‘Original Gangsta.’)
Today at 75, I host a Facebook Live show every Thursday afternoon for Jmore called “The Food Enthusiast” (facebook.com/jmoreliving). Initially, it was an in-studio broadcast, but now with technology — Zoom and StreamYard — the floodgates have opened and my guests don’t necessarily need to be local.
This is where my years of networking in the culinary industry paid off. I love finding diverse food-related guests for the show, digging into their life stories and chatting with them live.
Saying diverse is not doing the show justice. Along with celebrity chefs, cookbook authors, restaurateurs, food producers, etc., you will find videos in our archives of Matteo Troncone, who spent five years of his life making a movie about Neopolitan pizza; Alan DeValerio, a former butler in the Reagan White House; or Baltimore restaurant icon Harvey Shugarman, who now lives in Madrid, N.M., and owns his own chocolate shop.
As for my social well-being, can someone cue up that old Bette Midler tune, “Friends”?
“Look around and see all of my friends,
Oh, friends, that’s right, friends, friends
Friends, friends, friends, friends, oh
Friends, you gotta have friends “
Even when my husband was alive, friends always played a crucial part in my life. But more so now. Treasure your friends — they are there when family isn’t or can’t be. Without their help, I’m not sure I could have gotten through cleaning out and selling my old home and moving into my apartment during the pandemic
If you are like me — living alone and not quite ready for a senior living facility — then you might want to consider phoning or texting your friends to check on their well-being. I text three of my friends every morning.
Meanwhile, life is pretty full with getting guests for my show and marketing through social media, or delving into my guests’ stories and creating interview questions. I keep busy with occasional invites to new restaurant openings, having lunch with friends, the weekly Canasta game, the Milford Mill High School Class of ’65 reunion committee, client work, cooking, baking (trying to cut back), connecting with people and travel.
I have to admit when asked to write this column about aging gratefully, I was initially a bit perplexed. I went to my friends and asked them in one or two words to describe me. After all, we don’t really see ourselves as others see us.
Here is what they said: kind, a designated listener, wise, irrepressible, doesn’t take no for an answer, multi-faceted, involved and a zest for learning.
Not bad for 75.
As far as passing on any advice about aging, let me reference the movie “Prelude to a Kiss,” where Meg Ryan’s character gets kissed by an elderly stranger. Their souls switch and Meg’s character is now in the old man’s body. When her husband, played by Alec Baldwin, realizes what has happened, the old man (Meg Ryan) looks at him and says, “Take care of your teeth!”
I think that’s very sound advice.
“You can't dwell on things that happen. You’ve got to move on,” says Vicki K. Kahn, 77. "Everyone has problems, but you can't let your problems drag you down."
"Outlook is very important," says Jane Weiss, 78. "You can be old at the age of 25. You have to put forth an effort and step out of your comfort zone."
Paul Terle always advises people to take life right down the middle. “I’m an easygoing person,” says the 93-year-old father of three and grandfather of four. “I always say, ‘Never be too happy or too sad, too high or too low.’"
Looking for some inspiration on aging gratefully? Here are 18 great quotes to get you started, or just to to make you laugh.