I met Mrs. S on a flight to Los Angeles last December. She was heading to visit her son and daughter-in-law for the holidays. As retired widow, Mrs. S spent much of her free time traveling. She’d been to more countries than I can recall, but listed some in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America, just to name a few. Her last trip had been to take her granddaughter on a cruise to the Netherlands. (She made a point to take one of her children or grandchildren on nearly each of the trips she made.) Although, she usually traveled with friends. Their rule was to go to as many countries as possible and whenever someone asked why they'd gone someplace unusual, they replied, “Because we’ve been everywhere else.”Besides travel, Mrs. S’s calendar was full with activities and personal hobbies:
- She was in the process of building a large family historical cookbook database.
- Refusing to watch commercials, she recorded all her favorite television programs on TiVo so she could watch them later and forward through the ads.
- She was also working on filling up her new Ipod with music – a free gift she got from opening a new account at her bank.
- She was a speed-reader and could read several books in one sitting.
- She used a travel points credit card and got many of her flights for free (including the one I met her on.)
- She loved to cook, but as she lived alone, she made use of the large meals by breaking them into smaller portions and freezing them for later meals.
- She ran a birthday club in her hometown.
- On top of all this she made time to meet friends and dine, attend musicals or plays, films and concerts.
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