In this era, due to the improve social, economic and health status of the populations, there is an increase of aging population all over the world. Aging is an inevitable part of our human life that starts from conception to death. We move from one stage to another without even being aware of the changes. We gain knowledge, skills, and memories; sometimes we lose them but not always because of aging.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of the aging concept, I selected my father to be my interview subject because he had lived a very rich life. I took part of it and saw him aging over the years. But never asked him before how he felt about aging. My father is approaching his eighty-one birthday in April. My dad is the youngest of five sisters and four brothers, who all grew up in a small village in Algeria. He went through the French colonization and was traumatized by it. He lost two of his brothers at a young age during the war.
When I sked my father about his thought about aging he smiled at me, and he said “Life is just like a movie and we are the actors, when the movie will end you are forgotten, but if you performed well you’ll be remembered”. He told me that he was not scared of dying, because this is the natural process. Instead, sickness, fear of pain, disability, and becoming a dependent person is more scaring him then death does. Additionally he doesn’t want to be there if something would happen to us (his children). My father did not know his age exactly, he told me that he stopped counting them long time ago. Financially, my father is doing fine. It was not always the case, I remember when we were young, and my father had difficulties to support all our needs. But know he has his pension, which is sufficient to cover his expense and my mother’s.