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Alice's Morning
Alice woke up slowly, not wanting to let go of the dream she was having. Stretching in the cool of the morning light streaming through her bedroom, she lay there for a time enjoying the quiet of the moment, contemplating the patterns of light playing against the wall as the sun filtered through her soft bedroom curtains. Feeling unusually rested and refreshed, for the 345th consecutive morning in a row, Alice put on her fuzzy slippers and bathrobe and went immediately to the bathroom to peer into the mirror there. Staring out of the glass she saw her own laughing blue eyes sparkling with a hint of mischief as she had for many years gone by, but the face in which they sat, although familiar, belonged to someone else, a version of herself which she thought had long ago left for sunnier climes.
Her hands moved again and again, furtively over her skin, examining and touching with the same inquisitiveness as they had these many mornings past, the folds around her mouth and forehead, the orbits of her eyes, feeling the new health there and the tension of youthful vitality from the healing of the wounds that age inflicts. The crevasses of time which had been so prominent slightly less than a year ago had become so reduced as to have given her the appearance of a woman 20 years her junior, and the process was not yet complete. She smiled and whispered, “Welcome back.”, as she turned with a new sureness of balance towards the shower, and for the first time in years, forgot to hold onto the safety bar her husband had installed after he had fallen and broken his shoulder against the side of the tub.
He was no longer with her, having died 10 years ago at the age of 65 from a sudden massive heart attack that, although sudden, could hardly have been termed a surprise. He was a hard-working and fast-living man who had little time for the soft life, subscribing more to the “carpe diem” of the grasshopper in regards to his health than the philosophy of the ants. Certainly he prepared for the future and left a comfortable inheritance for his bride of 43 years, enough for her to afford the new regenerative therapies becoming available, but his belief that life should be lived to the maximum because it was short, was a self-fulfilling prophecy. She still missed him terribly. Tears of loneliness welled up to sting her sky-blue eyes as she remembered the man who had cared and shared his life with her, his rough hands, his warm voice, and once again the black void of emptiness which was left when he died rose up to momentarily overwhelm her. His was an absence that could never be filled, and a pain that would only be hardened to diamond with time, like a pearl taken out for examination when circumstances triggered memories of his warmth.
As she turned the water on and began to lather up the new vanilla-scented soap her great-grandchildren had given her for her just past 72nd birthday, the loneliness faded, replaced by the perennial poignant sadness she knew only so well. If only, she thought, he was with her now and could share this new journey upon which she had embarked. She took in the smell of vanilla as she put her face into the stream of water, luxuriating in the scent and the feeling of the renewed vigor that was returning to her once tired body, washing away remembrances of the past to reveal an anticipation of the future as her mind turned towards the thoughts of the coming day.
She went over the list of her activities in her mind, and what a list it was! “Pick up Jennifer and Michael and bring them to pre-school for 8:00 AM”, how she loved their bright faces and eager chatter the first thing in the morning, well, most mornings; “Go to ‘Petunias and Petals’”, her bustling flower business, for 9:00 AM to make sure this week’s order is ready to be placed and look after some of the paperwork. Maybe she’d even get to look after a few customers, although these days Diane, her right-hand in the company, rarely let her have the pleasure. After attending to those items that required her business attention she needed to meet her daughter for lunch at 11:00, who at 51 was becoming very interested in following her example and beginning to look at a regenerative program at a longevity clinic in her end of the city. Although still expensive, costs were dropping rapidly as more efficient techniques were being refined from the earlier more versions. Regenerative medicine therapies are following the same path as the laser therapies and MRI’s of a couple decades ago, only moving down it much faster, driven by the universal demand. Soon, it is projected, such therapies would become portable and made available globally on a humanitarian basis. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already committed billions of dollars to their distribution.
Alice dressed quickly, throwing on clothes she hadn’t worn in decades and were out of style so long, they were now back in. She smiled and glanced at her slim 50ish frame and moved towards the door to grab her keys off their hook. After lunch she needed to get at least 1 hour of exercise in at the gym, which she loved as it gave her a chance to talk with others who were going through the same treatments and she could use the time as an opportunity to compare notes.
She had to admit, she was very happy with her progress thus far. Looking at some of the others of her age group who had entered the program at the same time, she was an ideal responder. Whether through lucky genetics or perhaps just because her body had not accumulated the same amount of damage as others, she was at least 6 months ahead of the average and would likely continue to progress further than the normal endpoint. Her doctor thought that she might be able to reverse her biological age to perhaps her early 40’s or late 30’s. She felt very lucky that the reparative therapies were working so well for her.
As she jumped into her hybrid car and began to pull out of her garage she stopped suddenly as she realized she had forgotten her laptop with all of her notes and email that she needed for her afternoon shift at the volunteer center for the disabled. It wouldn’t do at all to have to come back for it later, so she quickly ran back into the house to retrieve it from the counter where she had left it. She smiled to herself as she resumed her journey, laptop in tow, knowing full well that it wasn’t too long ago that, she would have been reaching for it finding it missing and only remembering then what she had forgotten. The treatments were obviously regenerating more than just her body. Maybe she was almost ready to try for that university degree she had been wishing she had the confidence to attempt.
As her mind played her day forward she remembered her promise to her best friend Linda who had just turned 60 last week. Linda had a “friend-of-a-friend” who had a quiet brother with a small acreage home outside of town that he had bought 6 years prior after the death of his wife to a then incurable cancer. He was a “good looking 55 year old”, something which meant less and less to Alice the older she got. She was much more interested in the insides of people, which Linda assured her, was something she would find intriguing in this man who loved horses and kite-flying, camping trips and shopping sprees. Alice was skeptical. This sounded almost too good to be true, but she was feeling adventurous and although he could never replace the one who shared her past, perhaps there was still love in her future. At their introductory lunch date, chaperoned by Linda of course, she had agreed to meet him for a dinner and movie, a sappy romance which when she suggested it, he hardly blinked. “A tough cookie”, she thought, “and brave too.” She was looking forward too getting to know this man, and “who knows?” where things might go. She was after all, looking towards a much more open-ended future now that she could expect a few more decades of healthy life ahead.
As she pulled into her granddaughter’s driveway she saw the two heads of her great-grandchildren poking through the darkness behind the sidelight of the doorway. They were watching for her with the same anticipation she felt when she saw them, rushing from the steps pell-mell with lunch box and book bags swinging and banging to-and-fro and into the side of her car as they breathlessly leapt into the rear seat, immediately asking questions and making comments about the suitability of each others hair. She waved good-bye to the rather haggard-looking mother of these small tempests and smiled as she remembered looking through the same grateful eyes at her own mother so long ago being there for her. Her own grandmother unfortunately did not have the health that Alice herself now enjoyed, and was never able to provide the relief that she was only happy to insist that she give her granddaughter.
The squealing from the backseat subsided just long enough for little Jennifer’s pigtails, the only part of her visible in the rear-view mirror, to ask how her great-grandmother liked her birthday present, the vanilla soap whose scent Alice could still smell on her skin from her earlier shower. “I loved it,” Alice told the small voice, “in fact I used it this morning and I thought of you two while I was in the shower.”. Not to be left out Michael responded with what he remembered of the department store advertisement, “It’s supposed to make your skin look younger.”, he said in his grown-up-know-it-all-big-brother voice. “Well,” said Alice, “I don’t know about the soap, but my doctor is helping me keep healthy and my skin is getting better from the inside out because of it. I don’t think I need any soap for that, but the smell is really beautiful. Thank you both. I love you so much.”
As the din in the back seat returned to its previous decibel levels, Alice drove on, thinking about these two precious children, who would become cherished adults and who would love and be loved by the people in their lives. She thought about everything they might do and the problems and challenges they would face and overcome and what kind of world they might build from the one which previous generations would leave them. She wondered how long she herself might live and how many of her great-grandchildren..perhaps with a few more greats, she might hold and teach, sharing her love, wisdom and experience. She hoped she could share some of the hard won insights only time can teach; her awareness of the inconstancy of fad and fashion, the value of character over personality and the ultimate power of cooperation and love for your fellows. These are all things which she had only herself been able to learn with time, but which, rejuvenated, she hoped to provide to many generations of Michaels and Jennifers.
However long, Alice thought, that she might live, and it looked like it could be a very long while, these squealing bundles of energy would live far longer. The new technologies that enabled her to regain some of her youthful vigor would be refined over time, perhaps rapidly, enabling later generations to enjoy unparalleled health and longevity than at any point in human history. What, she thought, would the world be like where getting old didn’t have to mean getting sick? What would be the impact of the perspectives of millions of healthy and vital centenarians and super-centenarians on the global problems of war, poverty and pollution? Perhaps she thought, the world we would leave behind for the future would be just a little better. Just maybe, the human race would have a chance to grow up.
She smiled as she looked at the children leaving the car and race towards the pre-school doors as they faced their future in eager anticipation of another day of discovery. It occurred to Alice then that the rejuvenation treatments had perhaps done their job too well as she felt exactly like these children, looking at her open ended future under this limitless blue sky, and it was all she could do to stay in the car and not get out to run with them. Holding the strange impulse in check she told herself “There would be plenty of time for play…plenty more time.”
The above is a scenario held in the not too distant future perhaps as few a two or three decades, where new technologies such a stem cell and genetic therapies are able to repair the damage that accumulates with age, restoring function to the body and increasing healthy longevity. Of course there is nothing even remotely resembling the therapies which Alice is taking available today. Diet, exercise and good lifestyle choices are still the gold standard when it comes to living a healthy and long life. Still, these therapies are being developed and it is only a matter of time so it is a very good idea to do what we can now to help increase our chances of being around when they do become available.
If you are interested in more information on the developments of new technologies and their possibilities for extending the healthy human lifespan, please visit the Methuselah Foundation where you will find more than enough to keep you busy for some time.