Friendship through the ages

books:


	• Am I Old Yet? The Story of Two Women, Generations Apart, Growing Up and Growing Young in a Timeless Friendship Leah Komaiko Thorndike Press, 2000 - 273 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Am I Old Yet?

I found this book so topical that I suggested it for my book group. We will be discussing it this fall! I think it addresses the unspoken fear of many boomers -- getting old. I took this book with me on plane trip. I found people doing double takes when they saw the title. Even our cabin attendant wanted to give me an answer to the title's question. Komaiko handles the subject with loving humor.

A Masterpiece

This is a brilliant, compassionate, funny, inspired, dedicated quick read! It is, I believe the best book about relationships I've read in a very long time. Leah Komaiko says what I think but have never been able to verbalize much less write and put out into the public! When is her next book out?

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Am I old Yet?

I am so impressed by the honesty of the author, Leah Komaiko--her fear of being old and her sense of insecurity. I am also pleased that she found a way to go through her fear. I am so sorry to know that Adele (the 94 years old lady in the book) was abandoned by her family with no particular reasons. I remember my 89 years old father told me that the worst thing to be old is... you were young not too long ago. And when you get older you would prefer to be with your family. I can imagine how Adele felt when she was left at a nursery home by herself with no visitations from her family... It is a wonderful book!

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Friendship through the ages

I was touched by the honesty, simplicity and humor of Leah Komaiko's writing in this wonderful book. As a 44-year-old woman, I relate to the challenges of aging in our youth-worshipping culture. I was also struck by the ways in which the friendship between these two women progressed. There were moments when the author seemed ready to "throw in the towel," but the fact that she persisted even when things didn't go quite the way she planned was an inspiring example of how to love another human being, warts and all. I recommend this book to anyone.

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Poignant and Wise

I saw Leah Kamaiko interviewed on last Sunday's Today Show. We were also treated to footage of Leah and Adele walking and talking together. True soulmates. Seeing them reminded me of how moved I was when I read "Am I Old Yet?" the book Leah wrote so that all of us could share what these two wonderful women have learned from each other. There is only one age, alive, and that life is best lived in connection to ourselves and each other. Leah's willingness to face her fears of aging and learn from them gives gentle space for the rest of us to explore this taboo subject. For years in my psychotherapy practice I have worked with many people facing aging and mortality issues for themselves and their loved ones. "Am I Old Yet?" is poignant and wise. It illuminates while it confronts and comforts. I highly recommend this book. It is a valuable resource for our continuing collective journey.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

The Story of Two Women, Generations Apart, Growing Up and Growing Young in a frank, funny, and illuminating account for anyone who fears aging but longs to grow up.

At forty-four, Leah Komaiko was not aging graciously. Not that she ever has. After all, her generation expects to stay forever young. But now she feels old and empty inside. Nothing she thinks of trying (plastic surgery, a vacation, a puppy, or a new husband) can make her feel young again. Then she meets Adele---a woman who never expected to be ninety-four---alone, forgotten, and living in a nursing home.

Am I Old Yet? is an inspiring memoir that takes us deep into a world where most hope never to enter and few, willingly, dare to go: the nursing home. What for Leah begins as a reluctant agreement to spend one hour a week with Adele at the California Chateau evolves into hundreds of hours. Through their visits and conversations (about aging, death, miracles, and even sex), Adele, who is completely blind, surprisingly is the one who helps Leah see the truth about growing old.

With Adele as her host, Leah becomes a regular at the Chateau events: sing-a-longs, food fights in the dining room, a Halloween party (where pirates swashbuckle in wheelchairs). Gradually, her own fears of aging begin to lift as she sees that Adele--- resilient, independent, and almost embarrassingly enthusiastic---is, in many ways, younger than she is.

This original and poignant book obliterates the generation gap. It shares the "coming-of-age" stories of two wonderful and flawed women, fifty years apart, who find themselves in places in their lives they never thought they'd be and in a friendship they never dreamed they'd know. Am I Old Yet? reveals that no matter how old people are, if they have love in their lives there is only one age: Alive.

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