Last Orders

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I have just finished an adaptation of a radio play that I wrote about 15 years ago into a novel (yes, I know it's usually the other way round, but I like to be different!), which I have set in a English seaside town. The story revolves around three elderly ladies who are living out their final days in a small boarding/rest-home, accompanied by the usual unpleasantries that are associated with their time of life - early dementia, vascular ulcers, cancer, COPD & etc. Their outlook is brightened a little with the arrival of a young girl from eastern Europe, who, after listening to their plight, informs the residents that she has an elixir, which if taken, will restore them to twenty-one years of age next time they fall asleep. But - and there is always a "but" - the next time they fall asleep after their rejuvination, they will age rapidly and die peacefully without awakening. They have a second chance to enjoy life as a 21 year old - but this time in 2012.

I won't spoil the story, but I would very much like to hear what you would do if, facing the same scenario, you were minded to take the elixir. How would you spend your final 24 hours - assuming you were 21 years old again?

Looking forward to some interesting answers!

 

I'd probably spend 7-8 hours reading the barefoot running thread

 

I would spend my last 24 hours reading about Functional Foot Typing, Rothbart's Foot and the Bottom Block Theory. Death would be a relief after that.

 

You'd both spend it on the Internet??? I asked the same question to a married couple in their 70's the other week - a baptist minister and his wife of 50 years. The wife - a quiet, devoted lady - was in my room first, pondered the question for a moment and checked to see if my door was properly closed before answering, "I'd have sex all day long, but not" gesturing towards the waiting room "with him!"

Took me a few minutes to regain my composure!

 

Been pondering this one. D`you know what? I would do exactly the same as I did 20 years ago (when I was 21): Enjoy life, friends and most of all my first child Jessica, who was 5 months old at the time. Appreciate what you have and keep communicating, that`s the key. No regrets.

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain of my wounded heart - `Regrets`, New Order

 

I know where those lyrics came from. Used to play/sing this number when I was in New Orleans - think it was a Louis Armstrong number and was covered by Eric Clapton...Probably not PC these days!

I want a little girl, just to call my own
Someone I could talk to on the telephone
I wanna little girl, just to fall in love with me...

And she don't have to wave her hair
Or even wear fancy clothes, I wouldn't even care
She don't wear those see through nylon hose, ohh

I want a little girl to love a lot
You know that I'd give her everything I got
I want a little girl, just to fall in love with me

I guess that would be pretty much what most ordinary folk would do Bel - me included. But my characters are not that ordinary! When I wrote it originally, I wanted to highlight two things really - the first was that many older people really wished they could be younger again - "I wish I was your age again, son" - was a familier refrain (not so much these days!) and I wanted to show that things couldn't be the same. This is a different age and a different generation and although they were rejuvinated, they didn't go back in time to their own generation - which was a great disappointment, initially! The other aspect was for the younger generation who tend to pigeon-hole older people and don't really think that in every older person, there is a mischevious youth trying to escape. I have a notice on my study door that reads - "Boys will be boys - and so will a lot of middle age men"!

 

I've been called a lot of things in the past, but never 'ordinary'.

 

Blinda's sassy, not ordinary.

 

My mistake - should've been prefixed with an 'extra' bit!