Description

"Growing old is a constant battle...One has the experience of being squeezed out of one's bodily home, and one setsout to protect oneself against it, and holds on to what one can.... But when wemake an effort to grow old in the right way, which means transforming what isearthly into what is spiritual, we are working at the transubstantiation of theearth."

What is it like to live to a ripe old age? What is it like to haveto look after oneself in later life, or to be cared for by others? As lifeexpectancy in the Western world continues to grow, and as people survive longerperiods of old age, these questions arise on a daily basis. With great honesty andsensitivity and in poetically moving words and phrases, the author describes theexperiences of an old person at the boundary of life.

Shortly after the death of her almost ninety-year-old mother, AlmutBockemühl paused to contemplate the four years of intensive care that shedevoted to her mother. What happened during this period of sacrifice to a dyingperson? Taking a thoughtful, meditative approach, she describes invaluableexperiences, concluding that old age, death, and dying have the possibility oftouching the highest realms of human knowledge and perception.