Surprising elders

A delightful day spent in the company of family. Colin is approaching 80 and had baked a cake in readiness of my visit. It is an old recipe, he told me, given to him by a farmer's wife he had met when he had been conducting inquiries during a murder investigation ( he is a former police officer - perhaps an obvious comment). Did I want my fruit loaf buttered, he asked - it was moist but he liked it buttered so I had mine the same way. Such an easy recipe, he said, boiled, and he had printed out a copy of the recipe to give to me.
Conversation wandered to his impending holiday to Greece, on his own, and just a few months from open heart surgery. Did he have any photos of where he was going back to, I asked. Of course and the laptop was produced and a slide show was quickly run on the latest television screen. I don't know how to do that and really want to be able to.
I could not help but be surprised by him, though slightly ashamed to be so predictable in my thoughts about the abilities of an older generation. I suppose that my views have been shadowed by my own father who would rarely have made a cup of tea let alone bake a cake but, thinking about it, even he really enjoyed using his computer and, before his stroke, would often be found sitting in front of the screen playing card games and looking at photographs of his grandchildren, leaving e mail, however, to my mother. He was also quite keen on his mobile phone, usually only to call my mother to say that he was on his way home and to put the kettle on but the idea appealled to him and he was keen to embrace the new technology.
Spending years caring for the elderly and sick does tend to polarise expectations and today it was a delight to see, once again, that age does not necessarily mean infirmity. We spoke of Beryl's 85th birthday celebrations in Las Vegas and such an event would not seem improbable for Colin. I thoroughly enjoyed his company, the conversation was stimulating and the cake was lovely.