In 2015, journalist John Leland set out to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group: 85 and up. He anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notions of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise. This collection of their lessons emphasizes, above all, the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives.
From the community