Meeting new people

I like meeting new people and on Saturday, we went to a 60th wedding anniversary. Frank and Evelyn have been married for an astonishing length of time and I was proud to have been invited to celebrate with them.
Of course we arrived late. I can't manage to get to any event on time it would seem.
We found a couple of seats on a table and we were the youngest on that table. I sat next to a lady and eventually we got chatting. What an AMAZING woman she is.

She had a motorbike at one time, she can't remember what it was, except that it was a Honda. She rode it to keep her daughter company.
The lady's name is Joan and she apologised for talking so much. I told her not to worry because her stories were fascinating. I wasn't paying lip-service either.

She has been to visit the mountain gorillas in Uganda and after they'd been there, they went on to Mt Assisi to see Noah's Ark. She has visited New York in an original 1923 Rolls Royce to take the trip that the car took when it was first bought. The trip was well documented and the person that owned the car invited Joan to go along. I'm not surprised that she said 'yes'. I do believe that if there's adventure to be had, she's up for it!
Last year Joan was in Pakistan and she and her companion went all the way to the Afghani border to see what's what!
She's recently been skiing and she told me that on the trip, part way down the mountain, she felt a little breathless so she made her way to the nurse's station at the bottom of the mountain. She was a little dismissive when they said that they should call an ambulance, she didn't really want to bother anyone to that extent. Joan was then taken from the resort back to England where she had heart bypass surgery. She did offer to show me the scars but laughed at me when I told her that I'm a fainter and it probably wasn't a good idea.
She had to go early because she was still under the nurse's care and she had someone fetching her from the party - she doesn't drive now.
Before she went, she told me about the day she went to the Mall to see the Queen on her wedding day. She admitted that she became very overwhelmed and could hardly see anything.
She told me that she was going down south to visit her daughter this week and that she would be swimming in the outdoor pool (it's heated). I don't think it'd be one of my options this week, the weather has reverted to normality.

Joan was married on the same day as Frank and Evelyn and they have remained firm friends since then but her husband died a long time ago. She did seem sad when she told me that and I wondered if that was one of the reasons that she had packed so very much excitement and adventure into her life since, to ease the ache that he left.

Joan is 89 years old and I want to be just like her when I grow up.