How is 2024 going for you so far? Do you feel like you’re embracing or facing another year?   Last week at the beach, I made some time and headspace to reflect on the past year and contemplate 2024. It’s been several years since I was brave enough to do that and I wondered how many other Second 50 women do annual reflections or make resolutions. 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the concept of 'eldership'. For some reason, I associate it strongly with being the oldest in my family. With one parent still alive, I can't possibly be an elder, can I? Yet, in indigenous cultures, the concept of eldership is closely aligned to the notion of leadership. Elders earn their place in the community and are not necessarily the oldest. So, as I examine my life, have I earned the right to think of myself as an elder?

Recently my 93-year-old mother misplaced her walking stick. I’m the first family member she told, but being a plane flight away, I wasn’t much help. I reached out to my 62-year-old cousin Miriam, who lives around the corner from my mum. She was in a whirlwind of caregiving, including nursing her adult niece, weekly childcare for her toddler granddaughter and she’d just whipped up a rice salad for a friend undergoing cancer treatment. Here's the twist: Miriam also has a senior full-time job that requires long hours and travel to remote Queensland communities.

When I was 30, the age of 50 felt a long way off. Like somewhere on the other side of my life. When I was 40, I was too busy juggling family and work to think a decade ahead, but I recall that being over 50 was a time when people worked before retirement, then before moving into old age and death. Until suddenly, I was 49. Not only did I have three children still firmly at home, but I had experienced a traumatic career disruption and it was dawning on me that I was now firmly in mid-life, potentially with many decades of life and work ahead.

For the first time in my life, at the age of 65, I had no idea what I was going to do next. For a few years prior, I had looked forward to being able to slow down and enjoy life. That day would come when I exited the business I had set up with my son, and sold, in 2020. The problem was, I had no transition plan. I suddenly found myself anchorless and in a sea of confusion, about to be unemployed.

Are you prepared for navigating aged care? If we are blessed with a long life, then ageing, aged care, dementia and end-of life care will impact all of us. For something so unavoidable – for loved ones as well as for ourselves – I’ve realised how common it is to be woefully unprepared. This Second 50 Aged Care Primer might help.