Elderly---Really?

How do I define elderly? Elderly is relative. When my husband's grandmother was in the nursing home at 96 years of age, I asked her who she ate with. Her response, "Lena VanMeter, Bessie French, and two elderly women" How old do you have to be to see yourself as elderly?
This week there was a horrible car accident near here. The tv news broke in to regular programming and reported a car accident with two fatalities. Immediately the text messages started. Does anyone know who it was? Were there kids involved? Soon I started receiving texts from teacher friends. Yes, three teenagers were injured, but a couple was killed. Now, don't blame them; they were just relaying what they had heard. One said an "older" couple were killed. One said an "elderly" couple. My mind went to 75-85. That's my definition of elderly. Guess what, the couple was my age. That changed my perspective, I thought of their survivors. When I thought they were in their 70's, I was thinking of their mature children and young adult grandchildren who would have to deal with such a horrible accident. I figured they were retired, so their day-to-day circle of friends would be small. I even wondered if they had been advised not to be driving by their family who would have to deal with the grief combined with guilt.
When I think about a couple taken who are in their 50's, everything changes. Now I'm thinking of their co-workers, young adult children, young grandchildren, friends...the list goes on. What if that had been Tony and me? I certainly started thinking how much stuff we've accumulated that needs to be tossed. I don't want anyone to have to go through all that junk and wonder why we haven't thrown it away. I thought of my kids. Now, part of me was thinking how much I've missed Jason and how wonderful it would be to be with him, but Allison and Carson are still here. I want to stay to see where life takes them. I want to have grandchildren some day. I want to retire some day and see what that is like. I want to visit Ireland and Scotland and re-visit England. I want to go to Alaska and many other US states that I haven't visited. I really want to do of this before I'm "elderly." It may be too late.