I Was Just Leaving

This book of twelve highly readable essays is an insightful, wise and entertaining journey through some common peaks and valleys of old age. Written by a woman with wide life skills (counselor, business owner, community organizer, Episcopal priest, pastoral care giver), Mary Cushman draws deeply on the experience of reaching her eighties. The essays are highly personal, and also universally applicable. They take up such difficult issues as diminishing physical capacity, preparing for the end of life, and one's own death. The essays also detail the many blessings we enjoy at the end of our lives, such as deepened relationships, and the emergence of a wisdom that almost exclusively comes only with real age. While issues of aging sometimes seem mostly grim, in this book they get treated with honesty and a broad sense of humor-providing companionship for the journey that lies ahead when we are fortunate enough to grow old.