Anyone familiar with Link TV?  I happened to be having lunch yesterday and while channel surfing, I came across this station on satellite.  While I do have some favorite shows, I don't normally sit and surf.  Finding this station was a refreshing surprise!  They broadcast programs that engage, educate and activate viewers to the world.  And as difficult as it might be to believe....there are NO commercials! 

Watching "Hugo and Rosa" was the most rewarding hour I've spent in awhile. (especially with TV viewing)  It was a documentary filmed between 1992 and 2001.  The location is a small village in Sweden and Hugo and Rosa are siblings.  Neither had ever married and at ages 97 (Hugo) and almost 100 (Rosa) they lived together in the home in which they were born. 

I was amazed at their mental and physical ability....and even more so when it was revealed they had no electricity in their home.  Hugo went outside each day to chop wood for the stove. (Yes, I DID say he was 97) His next chore was to fill 2 buckets with water from the well and carry them into the house.  Rosa walked to the end of the road each day to get the newspaper that was delivered and she cooked the meals.  What struck me most about them was their smiles...their faces showed the wrinkles and lines of a lifetime, but their smiles radiated their warmth and contentment with life.  Hugo took ill and was taken to the hospital and during this time, Rosa was placed in a nursing home.  The separation for her was heart wrenching.  All she wanted was to go home and be with Hugo.  He did recover and then joined her at the nursing home.  The documentary covered the peaceful death in her sleep at age almost 104.  3 months later, Hugo also peacefully slipped away in his sleep at age 100.

What struck me the most about these two people was that despite limited amenities, despite the physical work that each day entailed and despite a lack of financial security....they thrived and lived to ages the rest of us can only hope for.  They brought back memories of my Polish grandmother, who lived to be 95.  Until she was almost 90, she walked downtown each day, cooked and cleaned and socialized with her lady friends at church and community events.  I remember my dad always saying that she was the classic example that hard work never killed anybody. 

While I was impressed with Hugo and Rosa's physical and mental acuity, what really jumped out at me was their emotional well-being.  Their smiles lit up the screen and they smiled a lot.  Both of them sang a lot.....old Swedish church songs, mostly.....and Rosa had an endearing way of adding "tra la la la la" to the end of her singing.  They were happy.  Not happy in the way that the material things might make us happy.  They were truly happy, from deep inside their souls.  It showed in their faces and it showed in their longevity.  They made the saying, "The good die young" a fallacy. 

Getting to know Hugo and Rosa during that hour was a very special treat for me.  People like them inspire people like me.  They just plain make me feel good and they also convince me only once again that age is merely a number.

Enjoy your day with lots of smiles and I'll see you tomorrow........