The 80-year-old had to endure a lot more when she was younger than she does today. So her age doesn’t cause her any problems. But is she afraid of death?
Author Elke Heidenreich (80) has no problem with age at all. “I think you shouldn’t be afraid of old age, it’s part of life,” she said on Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair. “Growing old is not a bad thing, it is not a decline, it is not a flaw, it is part of life.”
If you’re not sick or too poor, “but if you’re lucky enough to grow old without a care in the world like me, then that’s a wonderfully serene thing.”
Life was much more difficult at a young age: “When I was young, I was busy with a thousand heartbreaks, I didn’t know where to go, I had to do terrible jobs to earn my way through college. I was always overwhelmed.” She was overwhelmed by many options: “Should I have children, shouldn’t I have any? Do I actually want to get married or would I rather remain independent?” At 80, none of this is a problem anymore. “At 80, I sit there and think that I no longer have to prove anything to anyone. And she is grateful for a life in a country without war, “that is no longer so easy to have in the world,” emphasized Heidenreich.
“I look back full of gratitude and serenity and think, now is actually the best time, now it could go on like this for a while, but of course I see the end.” The poet Jean Paul once said that an arrow is shot at every person at birth and hits them at the hour of death. “I hear mine buzzing sometimes,” she said. “But it doesn’t scare me and I feel like nothing can happen to me anymore.”
Heidenreich presented her book “Frau Dr. Moormann & I” at the trade fair. It tells the story of “how an author, an idiosyncratic pug and a botanist become friends,” writes Hanser Verlag. At the center is Dr. Moormann, who complains about everything and starts arguments with the neighbors. But then a pug brings out a new side of her.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
