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One of the perks of writing my series “Retiring in Wallingford” is meeting the wonderful people who have reached out to me to discuss the subject of aging. Long-term Wallingford resident and author Priscilla Long even met me in person and offered me a copy of the book that she wrote and published in 2022: Dancing with the Muse in Old Age. After reading it, I was so impressed that I asked if I could publish a review in Wallyhood. She agreed, and here I am writing my first review of a book since maybe the fifth grade.

Side note: When I was a child, I thought I was a horrible writer and a bad speller, and I struggled in school. But I was of a generation that did not ask for help, we just figured out how to deal with our problems on our own. When I went to college in my 30s, I was still ashamed of my writing, and I got help from editors that I found. It was not until years later, when I was working for myself, that my assistant lightly suggested that I was like her husband. I asked what she meant, and she said dyslexic.

Now, back to Priscilla’s book. In Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, she has compiled stories about real people who have done incredible things, either starting in their twilight years or just continuing their youthful greatness as they aged. Priscilla researched her subjects and cites her sources in an academic style to back up her book.

One of the people she highlights is Richard Adams, who wrote Watership Down in his 40s while holding down a civil servant job. He had told the stories to his children, and finally had them published as a book when he was 52. It became a bestseller, and he quit his job at 54, continuing to write professionally until his death at 96. Another person she features is Spokane-based Sister Madonna Buder, who has competed in 400 triathlons, all after the age of 50. Other subjects are artists, musicians, and athletes who still accomplish, perform, and compete into their 80s and 90s.

While she tells the stories of these amazing people, she also poses questions at the end of each chapter to help the reader process what she has written. She weaves each story in such a way that it did not make me sad to not have accomplished a thumbnail of what they have. It just made me want to go to lunch or coffee with them and ask for their secrets—like what they eat or how they stay so relevant for so long. That is my biggest fear, no longer being useful or relevant. As a late-in-life learner myself, I could relate to these stories. As I age, I have tried to make a difference in my own way, like Priscilla’s muses in her book.

In one chapter, she writes about being old and happy. Some people may feel that happiness is for the young, and that we might not have the same amount of joy as we retire from work or live far from family. But think about it: we spend our younger years preparing for retirement, fearing we will not have enough money to take care of ourselves. We work hard, putting away money with the thought of someday leaving the job that we may love (or hate). So sometimes, the idea of being happy while you are doing all the things you are supposed to be doing feels out of place. Priscilla nails the concept of happiness, what we expect it to be versus what we actually find. One of the things I love most about this book is that it puts a positive spin on aging, emphasizing that you get out of life what you put into it. Sounds so simple, but if it were, we would have a happier population that took less medication and could enjoy this aging process, versus a population that is trying so hard to resist the whole notion of aging.

I moved to Wallingford a couple of years ago in what I have referred to as the last chapters in my book of life. Priscilla writes about encore careers and endeavors. I love encores when I go to the symphony: we stand and clap, the conductor comes out, and we get to sit down and listen to some more wonderful music. We convince ourselves that we have the power to hear more because we clapped for five minutes. Well, we have that same power to find our own encore in life that brings us happiness, completeness of our journey, or whatever we want it to be.

The stories in Priscilla’s book provide the roadmap that I so need in my life today, and inspire me to think about my encore. I once said I was lucky about something, and was reminded that “luck is the residue of design”—this is a quote from baseball executive Branch Rickey. True luck is not random, but is a result of consistent effort, learning, and growth. It was not just luck that I met Pricilla. She only contacted me because I put myself out there. I was able to read her book and find so much of value to me on my journey, so much so that I wanted to write about it for all of you. I urge you to pick up this book and learn and grow for yourself. I know I have, just by recognizing I have time to find happiness as I age. But I also realize, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, that I had that ability all along, I just needed to know I was worthy.

Thank you, Priscilla Long, for writing your book Dancing with the Muse in Old Age as your encore.

Priscilla Long, a longtime independent teacher of writing, is the author of Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, as well as The Writer’s Portable Mentor, two books of poems, a collection of memoirist essays, a guidebook for creators of all kinds, and a history of coal mining. Her awards include a National Magazine Award, and ten of her essays have been honored as “notable” in various years of Best American Essays. Two new books, Chambers of Being: Reflections on Spaces and Colors (University of New Mexico Press) and Cartographies of Home: Poems (MoonPath Press), are forthcoming in 2026. She has an MFA from the University of Washington and grew up on a dairy farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Editor’s note: see the other articles in Patti’s series “Retiring in Wallingford”:

• Living Without a Car
• How Did I Collect All This “Stuff”?
• Aging in Place in Your Family Home
• Navigating Volunteer Opportunities
• Retiring in Wallingford on a Budget