What kind of old person do you want to be?

I want to still wear heels.

I want to be incredibly sweet, cramming as many homemade cookies into innocent bystanders' hands and mouths as possible.

To wear dramatic colors like turquoise and magenta with equally dramatic (yet still classy) jewelry.

To own one very large and sassy (if not fleabitten) parrot who will be almost as old as I am. I will will it to the child who hates it the most and it will live in their care far longer than any parrot is expected to live.

To have lots of nooks and crannies in my house stuffed with crazy, unusual, and alluring trinkets collected from overseas travels.

Photographs in odd and curious frames will be posted in unsuspected spots--this one will be of my kids when I took them to the Brazilian rainforest on an ecotour. That one is of my god-daughter having a tea party with stuffed animals. And the one over there in the sunroom, yes, that's ________'s portrait when he was younger. I painted it when I was about your age. Wasn't he handsome? Still is. (*blushes a little*)

I want to be confident, and sweet with a little spice. One of those old people who lets a few slightly colorful stories slip every now and then that make the grandchildren feel like they're finally "old enough" for once.

I also want to be one of the most compassionate people who someone has ever met. I'm not there yet, but I'd like to never have to tell my own tales, to be a woman whose deeds speak for her. A woman of virtue whose legacy of compassion is her greatest gift.