Consumer Focus Column: Who is Your “Aging Hero”?

As kids, we all had heroes in our lives. Your hero might have been a favorite teacher or the President of the United States, a baseball player or even a fictional character. These were women and men whom we admired. These were people we wanted to be like when we grew up.

As we grow older, we still need heroes in our lives.

Katie Sloan, AAHSA Consumer Focus Columnist

But the heroes we choose today will be different than the ones we selected when we were young. Presumably, we’ve already grown up. Now we need heroes to help us grow old.

These new heroes are people we admire because they remained actively engaged in the business of living right up until they had no life left in them. These are people we’d like to emulate because they don’t let their age stand in the way of making a difference in their world.

Tran Thi My is my hero. This 86-year-old Vietnamese woman has run the Center for Lonely Mothers in Saigon for the past 20 years. Twice a month, Ms. My and her cadre of retired doctors and nurses climb into a donated truck and head for remote areas, where they offer free medical examinations, treatment and gifts to poor older women who live alone.

It’s not an easy task. The roads are rough and muddy; the trips are long and uncomfortable. But Ms. May endures all this because she has committed her heart to this work – and she’s not afraid to translate that commitment into action.

Ms. My’s family wants her to quit her job so she can enjoy her old age in peace and comfort. She refuses. The long trips into the countryside don’t bother her, she maintains. On the contrary, she says, giving help to old, needy people makes her feel useful and happy.

I want to be like Tran Thi My when I grow old. Who would you like to be like?