As you serve as a caregiver for an older adult, you’ve likely been tasked with helping them as they struggle with the aging process, confront their own mortality and look back over their lives. Many of the most successful celebrities are also facing advanced age and have shared their own perspective—wisdom that may help you as you comfort your loved one.
“I am appalled that the term we use to talk about aging is ‘anti.’ Aging is as natural as a baby’s softness and scent. Aging is human evolution in its pure form. Death, taxes and aging.”
Jamie Lee Curtis, 62
“I take comfort that aging happens to everybody. It’s part of life. Yes, it bothers me when I have lines or puffiness or droops. But it connects me with the human race. Just like the weather is the great equalizer, so is aging.”
Diane Lane, 56
“People can get crazier as they get older. I can just be weird whenever I want, and there’s the freedom of not caring what people think.”
Candice Bergen, 75
“It’s important to grow old gracefully, and that’s what I plan to do. I am here to stay. I take care of myself, and I have the discipline to stay fit and have good health until I am very old. I’m not planning on retiring, and in many ways, professionally at least, I think my best days are still to come.”
Sigourney Weaver, 72
“Aging is out of your control. How you handle it, though, is in your hands … In my older face, I see my life. Every wrinkle, every smile line, every age spot. There is a saying that with age, you look outside what you are inside. If you are someone who never smiles, your face gets saggy. If you’re a person who smiles a lot, you will have more smile lines. Your wrinkles reflect the roads you have taken; they form the map of your life. My face reflects the wind and sun and rain and dust from the trips I’ve taken. My face carries all my memories. Why should I erase them?”
Diane Von Furstenberg, 74
“I see myself on TV, and I say, ‘Oh, I wish that weren’t happening to my neck. And your face is falling down, and your eyes are so puffy.’ … I don’t want to look old and worn, but what can you do? My real focus is being an actor. I care more about having the opportunity to play roles that I haven’t played than I care if my neck looks like someone’s bedroom curtains.”
Sally Field, 75
“Every year should teach you something valuable; whether you get the lesson is up to you. Every year brings you closer to expressing your whole and healed self. I celebrate that. Honor it. Hold it in reverence. And I’m grateful for every age I’m blessed to become.”
Oprah Winfrey, 67
“It’s the rudest word in my dictionary, ‘retire.’ And ‘old’ is another one. I don’t allow that in my house. And being called ‘vintage.’ I don’t want any of those old words. I like ‘enthusiastic’ and I like the word ‘cut’ because that means you’ve finished the shot.”
Judi Dench, 86
“You only have two options in life: Die young or get old. There is nothing else. The idea of dying young when you’re 25 is kind of cool—a bit romantic, like James Dean. But then you realize that life is too much fun to do that. It’s fascinating and wonderful and emotional.”
Helen Mirren, 76
“Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get!”
Keith Richards, 77
“Some people are old when they’re 18 and some people are young when they’re 90. You can’t define people by whatever society determines as their age. Time is a concept that human beings created.”
Yoko Ono, 88
“I just don’t think of age and time in respect of years. I just have too much experience of people in their 70s who are vigorous and useful and people that are 35 that are in [lousy] physical shape and can’t think straight. I don’t think age has that much to do with it.”
Harrison Ford, 79
“What’s released me most from the fear of aging is self-awareness … I’ve never determined my value based on my looks or anything physical. I’ve been through a lot in life and what has gotten me through is strength of character and faith.”
Viola Davis, 56
