Today, we met Ada99, Marge90, and Angela. They made me think about time.

We were leaving the parking lot, chatting about something. Who knows what. There were three older women crossing onto the pavement (sidewalk) beside us.

Suddenly, the one with a walker tips backward, and knocks over the one behind her. The third lady manages to keep the walker lady from hitting the ground, but the other lands hard, and hits her head with a sharp crack.

Robyn is out of the car in a blink. I hit the hazards and jump out after her. I go to the lady by the walker, Robyn goes to the lady on her back. I help the un-fallen woman get the one with the walker onto the walker’s seat, and moving the branch that had gotten caught between her legs and the walker. (Nifty design, that.) She’s shaken but okay.

I go to Robyn, who is cradling the other woman’s head and speaking quietly to her. She’s still got her eyes closed, but there’s no blood. Robyn tells me to grab the blanket from the boot (trunk), and I bring it back and cover her up. A lady from the business beside us brings out a rolled up sweatshirt for the woman’s head.

Angela, the one left standing, turns out to be their carer. She was taking them to the pub for coffee with their friends. Marge, on the ground, says, ‘I think I’ll have to go home.’

An ambulance was called, lots of people stopped to ask if they could help, Marge didn’t want to lay on the ground anymore, Ada was 99 years old and Marge was 90. The ambulance didn’t come. Angela took them both home.

Ada was born in 1919. Can you fathom what she’s seen change in the world? I never thought I’d make it to 40, and I can’t, truly, imagine 100. What will our world look like in another sixty years? Think of all the things I’ll have seen.

As they were about to leave, Marge said to Ada, ‘It is an exciting life, isn’t it?’

Indeed it is.