Octogenarians Say The Darndest Things!

Life doesn't begin at 80, but it doesn't have to end there either. This mother-son team of physicians with over 75 years of patient care experience recalls the humor, wisdom, pathos and surprises revealed while caring for this remarkable group of people. As David explains: As a child I loved watching Art Linkletter's House Party on television, especially when he would interview several children at a time with some fairly ordinary questions and get some fairly extraordinary (or unexpected) answers. In this segment, called Kids Say the Darndest Things, Art was constantly surprised by their candid and uninhibited answers to life's questions. As a geriatrician for 20 years, I have come to enjoy similar uninhibited answers that sometimes come from my older patients. Their responses, however, are not rooted in naiveté, but are the results of years of experience and acquired wisdom from which they have to share. These experienced seniors are happy to speak up when asked, but they realize that wisdom is best received when volitionally pursued, not forcefully infused. I think many of my patients would agree with Ben Franklin who said, "I'd have no objection to living it all over again...But since repetition is impossible, the next best thing is to remember that life and to relate it to others." And relate they will, if we will serve as a receptive audience. When I first started medical school, my anatomy professor advised our class, "If all the world is a stage, you've just been given a front row seat to the show." Boy, was he right! And what a show it has been. I am much the richer for it, and hopefully after reading what these remarkable people say and do, you will be, too.