Cecilia Hagen Embraces Aging with Humor and Honesty

How does one truly cope with aging? In DN, a 33-year-old shares her efforts to reduce her biological age: starting the day with ginger tea, exercise, and a gratitude journal, and ending it with a red light mask and supplements. The longevity movement represents the first stage of grief: denial.

Cecilia Hagen, soon to be eighty, has moved past that. In her summer talk, she wants to share what it's like to grow old. Yes, that's the word she chooses. No euphemisms like 'age richness' here.

What follows is an account of a reasonably successful retirement life. Solving crosswords, joining a book club and a patisserie-testing club, attending funerals—'our version of mingling parties.' She ponders how often she can allow herself to call her children.

The entire narrative is marked by the elegant humor that characterizes Cecilia Hagen. If it hasn't struck you before, this summer talk reveals exactly where her son, comedian Jonatan Unge, got his 'funny bones.'

Aging is not just a downhill journey. It's about receiving sharp comments from others about needing a hearing aid—but also, thanks to such a device, being able to eavesdrop on everything said on the bus.

And perhaps this is how one copes with most of life: by allowing it to be what it is.