Come and Grow Old With me, the Best is Yet to Be! — Robert Browning

It is early in the day and the drive up there is effortless. None of your typical summer tourist RVs hogging the road or sightseers stopping at every quaint 300-year old barn sale. Nature is kind today; there are few black flies, hardly any mosquitoes, and a surprise flock of more than a dozen wild turkeys sitting tamely on the last back road.

Led by Mr. Tom-Tom himself, they ignore us and the engine noises, fluff their incandescent brown feathers and take their sweet time crossing the centerstrip. It is the closest observation point we have ever been; they are truly magnificent birds, not even remotely resembling their penned-in, huge chest-weight producing, hormonally fattened cousins.

Pulling into the entrance at lake's edge, the three-storey yellow gingerbread cottage stands proud (for more than four generations) and in stark contrast to the Utah-blue sky background. It is a golden light day — the air shimmery with late summer goodness, but crisp overtones hint a sincere reminder of the new winter to come. The lake water is still warm and sparkly clear to accommodate this annual happening of Grown-Up Day Camp.

Ms Classy, the hostess with the mostess, waits on the welcoming arms porch, as she has done so many times before, ready to make everyone at home. She is the sweetest, nicest, prettiest lady, a wonderful friend forever. We all know ladies like her; she is the one that everyone wanted as their friend (and fought over) when we were all children.

Behind her through the door, comes Mr. Energy Host bursting with enthusiasm and party vivacity. He is geared up to provide an unending stream of good music, games, rides, contests and amusement. And entertained, they are.

Up at 6 a.m. for waterskiing in the 'very' brisk lake air, they move to Bocce, on to horshoes, croquet, mountain biking (and accompanying spills, head wounds, bruises and leg gashes), swimming, boatseeing, then Margarita-mad dancing until middle-age bed time of 10.30 p.m. This 24-hour time out day is packed with non-stop activity.

There are ten of them — six women and four men, some married, some widowed, some working, some not — all aged in their early to late 60s. They have witnessed, experienced and survived so much: courtships, partnerships, long, long relationships, births, marriages, divorces, lifestyle changes, redundancies and downsizing, business start-ups and failures, politics of change, errant and successful children, loving and remote grandchildren, catastrophic illnesses and eldercare, and the heart break of Alzheimer's, cancer, partners' and parents' demises.

It is said that you make your own luck. This may be true. Nevertheless, after coming through many years of life as seasoned veterans, they still do not know what lies ahead. They are not sure if they have saved enough to retire, what kind of retirement that they will have, whether the money will last, whether they will still be happy in the future, whether they will remain healthy, and if not, whether they will be loved and cared for.

They are not financially materialistic, but today they feel steeped in extraordinary riches; the wealth of time to enjoy being themselves, surrounded by good friends and emotional security.

Just for today — it is a golden time. The sun, stars and moon have conspired to make it so. The laughter is real and the emotions are great.

Just for today, for a few hours, it is enough to celebrate life's best moments in the now. It is the most enjoyable experience imaginable. The day ends.

The backpacks and cell phones come out. Some are planning for re-entry into the working world.

The laundry list of tasks comes out. Practicality takes over.

Maybe they can do it again. Maybe they can relive what it feels like to be a child with a myriad of fun things to do, no worries, no responsibilities, lots of love and serenely innocent in the knowledge that all is right in the world.

Demographically, the composition of the Grown-up Day Camp friends may not be that different from the Western world statistical universe. Retirement should undergo a name change. If we were to review this same group ten years from now, what would we find?

I am placing bets that things will not be that different for them, no matter what challenges they face. They are a vital intelligent group open to the world of change.

They have practised sophisticated expeditiousness for years, and it shows in their faces, their demeanour and their true enjoyment of life.

In a longevity article on Menstuff, the American Academy of Actuaries reports (2004) statistics that the average 65-year-old man can expect to live to 84, and women to 87. About 58 percent of couples age 65 will have at least one partner live to 90 and 28 percent will have one partner live to 95. And these are merely averages — half of all people will live less than average, half will live longer than average.

Mature adults are living in a time of tremendous opportunity. One only need review the United States AARP World's Largest Circulation Magazine, to find real people exchanging real views on everything imaginable, including items verboten for discussion to prior generations.

Fifty-plus is termed as having only reached the first half of your life, while the contributions from readers on the length and breadth of plans that they have made for the second half of their lives is truly astonishing.

In the column on www.AARP,org, entitled "50 Reasons to Love being 50 plus", number 14 takes the prize. If Keith Richards can make it into his 60s, there is hope for all of us. It goes on, "he has had a litany of accidents starting in 1965; he was knocked out by electric shock in his guitar; wrecks his 19-foot Nazi staff car; declares in interview, "I've been drunk for 27 years"; doesn't recognise his own Stones album: "What's this Tattoo You?"; gets avalanched by books in his library ending up with three broken ribs and punctured lung; falls out of coconut tree in Fiji, and in 2008, gives his great key to his longevity: "I'm doomed to live!" The rest of us can surely do even better than that.

Martha Harris Myron CPA -NH1929, CFP® -67184 (US licenses) TEP — Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She is a Senior Wealth Manager at Argus Financial Limited, specialising in comprehensive financial solutions and investment advisory services for individual private clients and their families, business owners, endowments and trusts. DirectLine: 294 5709 Confidential email can be directed to mmyron@argusfinancial.bm. The article expresses the opinion of the author alone. Under no circumstances is the content of this article to be taken as specific individual investment advice, nor as a recommendation to buy/ sell any investment product. The Editor of the Royal Gazette has final right of approval over headlines, content, and length/brevity of article.