Sharing words of wisdom from our elderly LOs. Do you have some to add?

My mother-in-law told me, "I'm still me. My outside looks old but my inside is still that young woman with hopes and dreams."

Love this but wish it were in "discussions" so it could live forever.
My Dad used to say:
#1. "Most folks are just decent folks trying to live a decent life and take care of their families."
#2. "I am going to buy all the insurance I can, and the very BEST insurance, and I am going to pay a whole lot for it and hope that some other guy uses it for me. I am going to pay a huge amount of taxes happily and I am going to hope some other guy needs it and not me". Meaning that he was happy to pay to protect himself and his family and basically any OTHER family and just hoped that nothing catastrophic hit and he needed the help.
He was likely the kindest, best person I will ever know. Quiet. Listened to everyone else. Knew so much more than I could imagine until he opened his mouth.
Close to the end of his life, when he was tired and just wanted to tell me he had a good ride, but was so tired and ready, he told me the worst thing he ever did in his life. And how he had never got over it. And just let me say, if that's the worst any of us have to tell on our death beds, we will be so lucky.
Never religious really, he saw himself as the leaf that came to bud, to thrive, and would die to nourish other trees.
I am 80 and can still feel him with me.

My DH always said grace before we ate. We manage these days with me filling in while he smiles. Recently he said as I finished, "Amen, thank you Lord, I can't wait to spend time with you!" Could have knocked me over with a feather, this is why I l love this guy so much! We'll get here!

No sense rushing, better to lose one minute of your life, than your life in one minute.

My grandmother was a caregiver for several different elderly women from 1970-80. She always said
“Once an adult, twice a child.”

My mom has a number of sayings involving piss. She used these when I was a child and still uses these......

" You are so stupid you couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the boot was turned over and had no piss in it"

" I'm fixing to slap the piss right out of your mouth" I still don't get that one.

" You are just full of piss and vinegar today"

"Piss or use the pot"

"You're feeling your piss today"

My father was abandoned by his own father when he was five years old, farmed out to relatives from ages 5-12, then lived with his mother and abusive stepfather until he was 18, and yet went on to graduate from college and get an MBA from Stanford. He became a pillar of his community and a devoted husband, father, and grandfather.

When asked how he became such an honorable and fine man after an upbringing like that, he said:

"If I didn't know how to handle something, I'd think, 'What would my parents do,' and then I'd do the opposite."

That's how you get past mistreatment by parents who failed you.

My grandmother used to say (about any particularly spirited male youngster):

"Boy is HE full of the dickens."

Or, said directly to the child:

"You sure are full of the dickens."

My grandma always said it with a smile and usually with affection. It lived on when I caught myself saying it to my own son.

Dear Snoopy & Bundle,
Thank you…much appreciated 🙏🏼😍…
my soon to be 95 yo mother with dementia used to be a good loving mother …nevertheless, the hurtful words that come out of her mouth still hurt 😢

CaregiverL

My grandmother was a nurse and took care of a number of family members in their later years, including her mother (when my grandmother was younger) and then several of her sisters, when she was older herself. The last living sister, who was younger than her, became quite deaf, almost blind, and somewhat demented. I asked my grandmother when she was in her 90s what it was like to be a caregiver and to outlive most of her family, and she said that no matter what the disability, as people aged they were still "themselves" -- "old age is the same thing only more so," was how she phrased it, referencing her younger sister with dementia in particular but people in general. My grandmother passed away at the age of 97, a few months after the death of her younger sister.