Just after listening on Sunday to the beautiful young woman who lost her entire family with one stroke of nature, a tidal wave, there was a followup interview about the Baba Yaga House in the Paris suburb of Montreuil. A radical experiment to have older independent women live together to be able to continue making decisions about how they want to live, creating a communal liberated (retirement) home.
Janet Torge in Montreal talked about how she has been thinking for many years about her “last chapters” and how she wants to live them. She calls her vision “Radical Resthome” and would like to see a chain of them right across Canada, like liberated Tim Hortons, I suppose. And I am one of those she says will groan at the thought: rest home. I can’t even imagine it for myself. Even if it is a choice to bring other independent, intelligent, visionary women and men into my own home to share the burdens and pleasures of aging. I refuse to give aging much respect in my life. I just keep going. Sometimes the body aches, sometimes the memory slips, but basically I take care of what needs attention and continue on like an Eveready Battery. Maybe I’m wearing blinders and avoiding the issue, but I am enjoying my life and find planning for my weakening years impossible. I do like the idea of Radical Resthomes (emphasis on Radical) for someone else and I’d be happy if they set themselves up down the road.