"I am ninety. Or ninety-three."

How do you envision growing old? With a partner? Around your friends? Swinging around a pole in Magaluf?

Currently, I am reading a book called Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen, which pushes growing old into a new light. The main character is an older man reflecting on his past as a young circus worker. However, that is not relevant to my point. In between snippets of flashbacks, this gentleman also describes how he lives his last days in a care home. Obliviously no one wants to be in that position when they turn senile, in which they have to depend on others to survive, but its inevitable for everyone in one way or another.

Every time I walk past an elderly couple on a park bench, it brightens up my day. But why would that make a young teenager smile? In 21st Century Britain, I believe we lose track of some of the important details in life. Travel back in time with me to the 1950s, when couples met at dance halls or by a chance meeting in a park. Back then, love was alive, which is reflected through the strength of these same couples now, decades later. Through everything, they have worked on their problems, not just wasted love like its some disposable piece of plastic.

Its so much more than that.

That is why these people stay together all their lives, they work on things, and put real hard graft into keeping love blooming. That is what I really wish for in life. That is what we should all look for and hope for. That is what shouldn't change, even as our skin loses elasticity, as our hair turns grey and we suddenly can't remember why we have come upstairs to get something. That is how we can handle ageing and what is in store for all of us.

In the words of Ted Mosby, "Love is the best thing we do", so why not do That properly?