I now have lived longer than my father.

I now have lived longer than my father.

While this is no great feat by itself, for years I thought it was just my secret thought, I wanted to live longer, not outlive, my father. It was just a nonsensical goal, as my father died in 1970, but the goal was to make it at least as far into this journey as he did. Now that I’ve achieved his goal my next one is to live longer than my mother, another 17 years.

I never planned to reveal this thought, as I thought it quite unnatural, until I grew older. It was my mother who told me when she had outlived her mother (82) that it was a goal. It was my aunt who had mentioned to me that she had outlived her mother, my mother and now her father who convinced me that it was quite a natural thought, at least in my family.

So I counted days. My father had died on July 1, 1970 and his birthday was January 7, 1899. I had to figure the extra days before I was sure it was correct. I had to remember that we count from the end of the first year as opposed to the beginning (the Chinese do that one where you’re born at one).

The goal was reached, and now we move on. It’s an odd and strange goal, and I’m glad at least some others think the same way.