In 2014, I kept a “Turning 60” diary in which
I posted one cool happening per day. When one of those posts popped up on social media in 2024, under the heading “Ten Years Ago,” I thought, “Shit, I’m almost 70 now.” Then I thought, “You know, that diary was kinda fun. Maybe I should do it again.” After all, turning 70 is way more impressive than turning 60, right? I mean, we’ve survived another 10 whole years of… well, you know. Life.
I started my Turning 70 diary with the best of intentions, but it didn’t really get going until around day 50. That’s when I began to realize how many of my friends, most of whom are far away, were following it to see how Mr. T and I were doing, given the challenges of our life in France. Those challenges include homesickness (me) and end-stage renal failure (Mr. T.).
My Turning 70 diary is about the life of a writer—a native Vermonter transplanted to France—and her French husband, a retired safari guide, as they cherish what remains of their time together. Mr. T is ten years older than I and has been on dialysis for the past six years. He goes to a dialysis clinic three times a week, an ordeal that eats up six hours of his day. But we really can’t complain. The quality of care he receives here in France is not available to us in the U.S. We are willing captives of the French health-care system.
Our life in France is quiet, interrupted now and then by medical emergencies. Most days, I write, I teach online writing workshops, I dabble in my “studio,” a small bedroom in our three-bedroom flat. On dialysis days, I take long walks in the forest and do household chores. It sounds boring, but it isn't. It's about making every day count.