Life Begins at 90 Blog #19 Keeping Fit;

Thursday,  January 15,  2015  has changed my life.  My granddaughter Tali Magal delivered twin baby girls. This makes me so happy… the 4th generation since the Holocaust! I am now a great grandmother Prababcia (pronounced Prababcha) in Polish.

       Tali Magal with Baby A and B - no names yet.

Now I have to take very good care of myself to stay around few more years to see the little ones grow up a little bit.

I have done it all my life, when it was possible, although during those 7 years of WWII it was tough going just to survive.  That means eat, rest, and exercise with pleasure.

      

Here in Sedona where people are mostly retired there is no excuse to eat late in the evening. For best digestion the main meal should be between 2-3 pm.   

If one has a good breakfast, then around 4-5pm coffee and delicious dessert (as my Aunt Ruth said, “something worth sinning for”),  and in the evening only a very light supper. Believe me this makes you sleep much better than having a heavy meal at night.  One thing please remember: Eating is a joy.  Never hurry! Your insides will be grateful!

    

I am enjoying this January, so full of sunshine and weather warm enough to go to swim in our spa at Los Abrigados. When I go to swim and do a gentle work out in the middle of the day, there is practically nobody around, so I enjoy privacy and quiet.  They are so friendly and helpful there; it is like a second home.

     

Most people I meet tell me they set aside an hour to meditate.  I don’t like to just sit… so I meditate when I swim.  I also try to have something to look forward to every day, such as meeting a friend, or going to our beautiful library, and on the way I always stumble upon some delightful adventures which are not planned at all. 

   

I met a number of very elegant sales ladies in shops when I lived in Palm Beach, and I wondered why they have to work standing on their aching feet so long at their advancing age.  Getting old has to be  prepared long before it happens. We all bought things that we really did not need when we were younger.  Then, when we got home we asked ourselves, “What did I need it for?” We should rather spend only on good quality, beautiful things that will last, and not let our impulses dictate unnecessary spending.  We will need that money later on!

Also it is helpful to have a caring husband  like I did who plans for old age wisely- or, if one is alone, to do the same  for yourself…. just a little common sense.

A big help in older age is to have good children who are your friends!  It is so much more pleasant to enjoy life together than to fight and create stress.  Sometimes it is difficult to achieve.  I am grateful to have loving, caring children and grandchildren - a real blessing!!!!! I hope they will have the same luck when they grow old.

   

Think and plan for yourself.  Do not let strangers  do it.  That can be a big mistake.

Now to rest after a great dinner at 2 p.m. and a little 20 min. nap which revives me to enjoy the rest of the day.  Shalom, and now am looking forward to be 95 years old in May.

- Nika Fleissig

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Blog #18 Life Begins at Ninety: Hats Old and New

#18 Hats Old and New

   

Today is a sunny Saturday, at this new beginning of 2015, and snow is on the ground.  This is unusual here in Sedona, and it lasts a short time, so this gives me the opportunity to take out of my storage box my only hat left from the large amount of warm hats which I had made myself decades ago when our children were very small.

When I arrived in the U.S. in 1946 this was a beginning of a new life.  I slowly had to make up for so many lost years when I was surviving the war.  Now I felt maybe I will be lucky to be able to learn all the things I missed from the age of 19 when the war started, until the age of 25, when I was liberated from Prisoner of War camp in Germany.

    

I got married to Fred Fleissig, and had two lovely children, Alicia and Willy.  I found a whole catalogue of adult education courses available for free in the evenings at the school nearby in White Plains, N.Y.  As soon as my husband Fred came home from the office and we had supper, I left the house to go to that adult night school to learn slowly everything that was available.  After 1 or 2 years when I felt I learned enough, I started a new challenge.

At some time I decided to use all the remnants that nice friends brought to my house and make a few hats for the winter, for skiing and skating or just for wearing fashionable, colorful warm hats on cold days.

 

I liked the project so much that I kept making more and more, every hat an original, totally made of lovely pieces of varied materials, and then knitting and crocheting decorative pieces to hold it together.  It was so much fun seeing Alicia wearing some of the hats. There was a kind of creative dare I would make to anyone who came to visit. I asked “Do you have the courage to wear my hats?  Then it is yours!”

   

Although I did give several away, I ended up with about 40 unusual hats, more than we could wear!  Fred’s secretary went together with my husband to a sport shop in White Plains, and to my delight they bought the whole batch, selling each one for $40, which was a lot of money. I don’t remember how much I got, but the point was that people appreciated these whimsical and unique hats that I had made.

Now on this cold, snowy day over 50 years later, I just had to wear the only one left from all those hats made so long ago.  A nice lady made a photo of me wearing it in front of our library in Sedona.

I found that Alicia as a teenager modeled that same hat when I had just made it, so here are both photos, of her then and me now, and a close up.

I hope many ladies when they grow older could find something to create out of different materials for their grandchildren.

Imagine what fun that would be!

    

By the way I have now accumulated many beautiful  hats, some here in Sedona and others in Wellfleet.  In my Sedona apartment, a friend of ours,Wayne Grossman, made a lovely wooden stand with pegs to hold my hats for all to admire.  I have a whole collection: western cowboy hats, a woven colorful hat from Poland, a fun packable hat from a museum, each one stylish in a different way!  Lucky me!!!!!

      

Hats off to you all!

Blog #17 Life Begins at Ninety: Time to rethink one's life and actions

At my age not having much time to plan anything, but rather just living from day to day and making the best of it, a thought occurred to me to ask myself a few questions.

  

As long as I remember I was a doer, not a talker or writer.  Why then suddenly do I have the urge to put down almost daily what I observe and try to write about lessons I learned the hard way (is there any other way)?

The revolution in my life came with my discovery of computers- the possibility of instant communication with friends, and getting immediate answers, not to have to wait for eleven days, by which time I already forgot what I asked.

In my eighties when I lived in Palm Beach, I had great reservations to start burdening my small brain with this new and difficult-to-understand stuff.  I bought my first computer – a terrible-looking, green, tall piece of equipment from a neighbor who had lost his wife. It was impossible!  I resold it almost immediately to another “greenhorn” for the same $300.  It felt like a great relief. It was so frightening at that advanced age not to be able to read anything or understand the language, and I felt dumb.

But I didn’t give up.  A year later I met Sami, the 15 year old son of my Finish friend Marjaleena. Sami is a genius! At an early age he built four computers from scratch.  He convinced me that he could teach me to function on a more modern computer than that first monster I had tried to learn to use.  Well, that started a new life of possibilities as well as the beginning of daily frustration which will never stop. Just when I know how to open email, forward a message, etc. I get stuck and can’t figure out how to find a picture or a note that was there in front of me the day before.

    

I imagine I see you smiling, thinking that I’m still a “first grader.”

But really the few simple operations I know how to do give me great pleasure. I begin every morning to see what emails arrived from family and friends, and then have enjoy playing bridge on BBO  with the whole world, communicating and finding  a few friends and not being lonely.

 

Sitting in my Sedona quiet place I connect with so many people. What a thrill.

     

Writing the 18 blog posts so far (instead of writing a book which I had wanted to do, called “Life Begins at Ninety”) my darling Alicia explained that writing a blog from time to time will reach many more people and I will find the responses and opinions very interesting.

   

If you are past 90 you never heard a word “blog”?  Alicia explained that it comes from Web-log contracted to “blog.” Well, now I am in the advanced stage of having written more than 18 of them. Some are waiting to be edited and will be sent out in the coming months. It is more like talking to myself then teaching anybody anything.

   

I will never give up talking about the things that are plaguing our society, and I do hope that maybe it will change for the better in the future.

For instance, eating junk food is what America invented. It makes money and makes people happy but obese!  Lately I noticed, living now in the West, that people seem to care more about “being in shape” 

and that is a good beginning.

Making money is what this game is all about - I understand this -  but we have to save ourselves  in spite of it.  We have to listen to my Aunt Ruth who advised: “never eat anything not worth sinning for”!!!!!!!!!

  

This changed my life forever. She meant only eat the very best, homemade, excellent treats once in a while.  I lost many pounds and maybe I can persuade others to eat well and to think about what they put in their mouth.

Now this New Year 2015 is a good time to start with new resolutions!

I fervently hope that it will start already in Kindergarten.  Why wait till you have much weight to lose and health problems? 

Happy New Year!!!!  Well-wishing old/young  Nika