Another day, another victory over death

There are a couple of unexpected benefits to getting older, particularly if you've had a chronic or life-threatening illness. 

First, obviously, is that each new day is a milestone of survival, bringing you further from the early death you feared (though, ironically, closer to the death you will inevitably face). To me, it's amazing to be 59. There was a time when I didn't expect to live beyond 55. 

My friend K, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for four decades, points out that as those of us with special health problems get older, our same-age friends are finally catching up with us. We  may have looked and acted older earlier, but now our contemporaries are turning gray, slowing down, enduring age-related health conditions. Not nice, I know, to take pleasure in the decrepitude of others. But it's not their decrepitude I enjoy; it's their company.