{"id":4034,"date":"2012-03-07T01:23:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T01:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayables\/?p=4034"},"modified":"2012-03-07T02:07:55","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T02:07:55","slug":"life-on-your-own-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html","title":{"rendered":"Life On Your Own Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Six days, six doctors. That\u2019s what Aunt Beryl\u2019s life has become. She\u2019s an old lady but don\u2019t ever let her hear you say it. She\u2019s fighting the clock and hanging on to every dribble of life lubricating estrogen. Her eighty-seventh birthday was last week. She wore stilettos. They weren\u2019t Carrie Bradshaw tall, but still, Beryl tottered around on 2-inch spikes because you never where flats to the opera.<\/p>\n

Beryl thinks the doctors will find out why she is tired all the time and cure it. Every medical professional tells her the same thing: You\u2019re healthy, just getting older that\u2019s all. She won\u2019t accept it. So her and her Medicare card make the rounds to specialists, generalists, and any other \u201c-ist\u201d who could possibly hold the secret elixir.<\/p>\n

Her niece Willa is a Presbyterian minister. She\u2019s been trying to convince Aunt Beryl to join her at church sometime. Eighty-some years spent in complete bewilderment of how perfectly sane people could fall for \u201creligious hooey\u201d has given her the resolve to say, no thanks.<\/p>\n

But she did mention a little something about her spiritual life the other day. She told Willa she\u2019s not afraid of death. She\u2019s scared sh#tless (her word exactly) of being sick. That\u2019s why her day job now consists of doctor visits.<\/p>\n

Aunt Beryl fights for her lifestyle, not her life. Somehow she has an inner calm regarding eternity that many people of faith would envy. Pray for Beryl and all the other older folks who don\u2019t do their own praying, but could use a few of yours.<\/p>\n

– Prayables<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six days, six doctors. That\u2019s what Aunt Beryl\u2019s life has become. She\u2019s an old lady but don\u2019t ever let her hear you say it. She\u2019s fighting the clock and hanging on to every dribble of life lubricating estrogen. Her eighty-seventh birthday was last week. She wore stilettos. They weren\u2019t Carrie Bradshaw tall, but still, Beryl…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":463,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1368,1367,2936,2935],"class_list":["post-4034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-stories","tag-aging","tag-getting-older","tag-inspirational-stiry-about-aging","tag-senior-citizens"],"yoast_head":"\nLife On Your Own Terms - Prayables<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life On Your Own Terms - Prayables\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Six days, six doctors. That\u2019s what Aunt Beryl\u2019s life has become. She\u2019s an old lady but don\u2019t ever let her hear you say it. She\u2019s fighting the clock and hanging on to every dribble of life lubricating estrogen. Her eighty-seventh birthday was last week. She wore stilettos. They weren\u2019t Carrie Bradshaw tall, but still, Beryl…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayables\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-07T01:23:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-07T02:07:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayables\/files\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Prayables\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life On Your Own Terms - Prayables","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life On Your Own Terms - Prayables","og_description":"Six days, six doctors. That\u2019s what Aunt Beryl\u2019s life has become. She\u2019s an old lady but don\u2019t ever let her hear you say it. She\u2019s fighting the clock and hanging on to every dribble of life lubricating estrogen. Her eighty-seventh birthday was last week. She wore stilettos. They weren\u2019t Carrie Bradshaw tall, but still, Beryl…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html","og_site_name":"Prayables","article_published_time":"2012-03-07T01:23:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-03-07T02:07:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayables\/files\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Prayables","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html","name":"Life On Your Own Terms - Prayables","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayables\/files\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2012-03-07T01:23:03+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-07T02:07:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/#\/schema\/person\/ec269252d24ce0bc77635e1f49f53107"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayables\/files\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayables\/files\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/2012\/03\/life-on-your-own-terms.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Life On Your Own Terms"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/","name":"Prayables","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/#\/schema\/person\/ec269252d24ce0bc77635e1f49f53107","name":"Prayables","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/author\/sdiamond"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4034"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4054,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions\/4054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayables\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}