Dear Friends

The start of a new year is a time for reflecting and looking back, but also a time for looking forward and making resolutions. I recall the phrase, “A year older, a year wiser?” Well, I certainly feel a year older, though I am not so sure about feeling any the wiser. However, “old age” has certainly featured for us, as a family, this last year, as both Claudia and I have lost our mothers. Through a combination of old age and failing health we witnessed our elderly mothers slowing down and eventually passing from us. “Growing old is not for cissies” was a quote I remember from a friend a long time ago. And even in your twenties and thirties, you start to notice a slight but inevitable slowing down physically. I also recall someone else saying, “Old age is the only thing that comes to us without any effort on our part.”