My wife’s grandmother had a stock saying she’d roll out every time we visited.
“It’s a great life if you don’t weaken,” she’d tell us at some point. I always thought this was a bit over the top, coming from a “glass half empty” place, and often times volunteered out of the blue. Yet here was a woman who lost her husband when she was 69 years old, and who proceeded to get her driver’s license and just carry on.
There’s no shortage of advice out there, coming from pseudo-sages and self-help “experts” hoping to cash in on peoples’ desperation and vulnerability. Still, it’s easier to take when it comes from someone possessive of a certain resilience, experience, stubbornness, and strength.
