SURRENDERING THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

 I recently read a story about a ninety-three year old woman who surrendered her car keys to her family. She no longer felt confident in her ability to be a good driver. Another ninety-three year old, a neighbor of mine drove until the day he died. He was a dangerous man.

Our car keys are our keys to the kingdom. They are the keys to our freedom and independence. Many drivers will not give them up without a fight.

I would not be one of them. I don’t like to drive and never have. But my keys represent that precious freedom and independence I’m not willing to give up. No, I’ll put up with all the crazy drivers on the road. I’ll ignore  road rage, drivers without a license, and worse, drivers without insurance. I’ll even put up with the high price of automobile insurance for a while longer.

White-haired drivers unfairly take a lot of the blame for road accidents. (One of the reasons I wear a hat during a good deal of my driving time.) We Superagers have years of experience behind the wheel. We are excellent drivers.

Besides, many states give regular age-driven driver tests which help eliminate the really poor drivers, seniors or not. Granted, there are drivers who no longer can see over the steering wheel…due to body shrinking, or cannot hear well, let’s say they cannot hear another car horn tooting a warning.

Every now and then there’s a slippage.  Drivers who may have a bit of a memory problem slip through the cracks. You’ve seen the Silver Alert signs. I worry about those drivers most of all.

Everyone does.

And some people don’t think the safe guards in place are enough. They want a mandatory age shut off.  For instance, they advocate a program which at 65, your driver’s license…keys and car…are taken away.

No. That’s just wrong.

There are organizations like AARP that offer refresher driving instruction and may reduce the insurance.  In addition many local Council on Aging organizations offer transportation.

And just because I don’t like to drive doesn’t mean I don’t want or need to drive. I’m eighty-three and have not caused any traffic accidents…that I know about.

Ever.

I still have places to go, things to do. Adventures ahead that require an automobile. Fortunately for us we live in the time of the Uber driver. We make a call and a car and driver comes to take us where we need to go. Our adventures do not come to an end just because we hit a parking sign backing up.

Hopefully, I’ll be wise enough to know when it’s time to surrender my keys. Which isn’t now.  What are your thoughts?