The stigma and underlying perceptions put upon people who are elderly are unfortunate. It’s difficult to see loved ones age to the point that we’re forced to consider the approaching reality that they’ll no longer be with us. So it goes. The world’s population of people beyond 60 years of age is increasing. It’s expected to double from 2015 to 2050, rising from 12% to 22%. What’s more alarming is that the contingency of younger people who will care for the elderly is shrinking.
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As of 2016, the United States reported having about 19,000 active senior living facilities. These communities allow groups of people around the same age to live together, share common interests, and have access to the care they need in a social setting. It’s excellent for some, but others can’t stand the idea of it.
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While here in the United States we have more than 10,000 people hitting the retirement age of 65 every day, age is merely number. This was the spirit Ken Watson lived by.
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In Wales, Ken Watson was neighbors with Caroline and Owen Williams and their two-year-old daughter Cadi. In his mid-eighties, Mr. Watson was a very spritely man for being so advanced in age. He was a former diver, seaman, carpenter, and baker. The Williams couple reported meeting him when he was 83 years old, fussing about his roof on a 20-foot ladder before coming down to introduce himself. They all hit it off and were quite close.
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Mr. Watson was very fond of their daughter Cadi. He was 85 when she was born and got to spend the first two years of her life seeing her grow up, but he recently passed away at age 87. Cadi’s first two years were Mr. Watson’s last two years.
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After he passed away, Mr. Watson’s daughter realized he had left something behind for Cadi. She brought a bag to the Williams family and, at first, Caroline Williams mistook it for rubbish. Upon further inspection, she quickly realized what Mr. Watson had done. He had purchased and wrapped presents for their daughter Cadi for each Christmas for the next 14 years. At first, they thought it was 13 gifts until they got the count right.
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“I miscounted. It’s fourteen gifts. He always told us he’d live till he was 100-years-old, so these gifts would have taken him up to our little girl’s 16th Christmas,” tweeted Owen Williams.
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They were utterly blown away by the kindness of the gesture and could only wonder at how long Mr. Watson had been planning this. The tweets, pictures, and stories have since gone viral. Owen Williams even set up a poll asking whether they should open all the presents now or one per year until 2032. The poll received more than 67,000 votes, 69% of which agreed that Cadi should be given one present per year until her 16th Christmas.
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It’s genuinely heartwarming to think of the little girl growing up and becoming conscious of the fact that this person she never knew wanted her to have something every year through her formative years. It’s a story that truly gets better with age. One Twitter user summed it up perfectly:
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“As she gets older, she will learn the invaluable lesson, that the greatest gift to receive and give, is the beautiful gift of humanity.”
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That’s quite the legacy.
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