“The glass can be half full or half empty. If you wake up each day, then your glass is half full.”
Margie Glou turned 80 in 2022, and while she did want to celebrate the milestone with her family, she wanted more than a cake full of candles or the standard dinner with her 5 kids and 12 grandkids. To commemorate her decades on the planet, she had a better idea: To go skydiving.
So Margie did just that, making the 10,000-foot jump in Pepperell, Massachusetts in the summer of 2022, alongside one of her five children and two of her grandchildren. (The only ones who had the guts or desire to take her up on her invite.)
“It was just a thrill,” she says. “In fact, this spring I’ll probably do it again.”
While most would consider this risky business for a person of any age, let alone 80, Margie doesn’t see it that way. “I don’t look at myself as a big risk taker. I didn’t see skydiving as a risk. There was a man on my back who was a professional skydiver. He did everything. His life was on the line, too.” She says no one in the group was “freaking out.”
And while she admits that with age has come a certain uninhibited hunger for adventure, she says she’s always had an ambitious, adrenaline-seeking tendency. “Whatever I’ve done, I’ve always been a leader.”
Margie’s career was spent in the Boston area education system as a teacher and internship coordinator for 25 years. In her downtime, she invested in the community, working on projects like running local political campaigns. And of course, she spent ample time tending to her blended family of seven.
Margie describes her life path as fairly sensible, though she also admits that she was limited by the times. “There wasn’t much opportunity for women. Very few women went to business school and very few women became doctors. You became a teacher or a nurse. There wasn’t that much exploring to do.” Though she’s adamant that she doesn’t dwell on past losses, she admits that it’s “a possibility” she began looking for adventure elsewhere because day-to-day, she played it safe.
Margie considers aging as a chance to further expand her horizons. She’s gone parasailing in three countries, she went hang gliding for her 60th, and she celebrated her 80th birthday with that infamous skydiving trip.
“My mom is up for any adventure — she’s the first to jump in the kayak at my Cape house, and she’s always game to do anything, whether it’s seeing a drag show or exploring a new place,” her daughter Lisa Tanzer says. “The grandkids call an outing with my mom an ‘advencha’ because of her Boston accent.”
Taking advantage of these experiences has had a bittersweet undertone as well — her husband, Alan, has dementia, so in recent years they haven’t been able to travel together. So those rich memories of parasailing and their years of international travels have become even more significant.
Since Alan’s diagnosis, Margie has been limited in her adventurous habits. But she insists that challenging yourself in much smaller, everyday ways can actually be far more empowering than a death-defying jump. Recently, for instance, she took a significant risk that might not be a big deal to some: She went to the movies alone.
“I wanted to go see the Tom Hanks movie, A Man Called Otto. I can’t go with my husband because it’s too difficult, but I had back-to-back help one Saturday so I bought a ticket,” she says. Before this, she says, “I would never go to the movies alone. I just never felt comfortable sitting in a movie by myself.” But times have changed. “I got a ticket and I went. I sat by myself with my box of popcorn. I was never so happy in my life. I realized I’m not gonna be swallowed away or feel like a lost soul. When I walked out, I felt so proud of myself for doing something new.”
And though she’s content to take these smaller, more manageable risks on a daily basis, she still has plans for larger adventures. She’s dying to go on safari and take a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti (of course, it wouldn’t be her first time in a hot air balloon). And if that sounds lowkey and relaxing, rest assured that she’s craving at least one more adrenaline-boosting experience: “Next: zip lining. But I want to do it somewhere really exotic.”
If you need to replenish your zest for life, Margie has tips on making the most of life — no matter your age.
Making the most of your life actually gets easier with age
“I think the advice I would give people is that this is not a dress rehearsal. You’ve got one shot and this is your time. My husband has dementia and I have full-time help. I’m not responsible for my kids. I’m not responsible for my grandkids. I’m basically responsible for me and for [my husband], but I make sure that he has care. It’s easier for someone my age to do anything we want because we’re really only responsible for ourselves. So, if there’s something that crosses your mind and you want to do it, then you’ve gotta go for it. Just like when I went parasailing. Ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen? The rope breaks, and you end up in the water. With skydiving, what’s the worst that can happen? The plane goes down. I mean, I’ve lived my life. I’m 80.”
Aging is personal
“Age is only a number. I wake up each day, I put two feet on the ground, and I get out of bed on my own. So I’m happy. Some people reach 65 and they feel as though they’ve got one foot in the grave. Then there are other people who are 90 and they feel like their lives are just starting. I think aging is an individual thing and depends on where someone’s personality and headspace are. My feeling right now is that I have more years behind me than in front of me. And each year I want to get everything out of it that I can. I know that there are things that I used to be able to do that I can’t do now. I can’t exercise exactly how I used to, but I modify. I do what I can. I don’t look at aging as a limitation. I look at it as my body not wanting to do some of the things that it used to be able to do.”
Everything is temporary
“Nothing is forever. I don’t care what it is. You have kids, it’s not forever. They’re yours for a very short window of time. You have grandchildren, they’re yours for a very short period of time. It’s the same with age. You just have to accept where you are at the time. I’ve never allowed negativity to run my life. The glass can be half full or half empty. If you wake up each day, then your glass is half full.”
Step out of your comfort zone on your own terms
“Try to get out of your comfort zone. Try to accomplish something that you thought you couldn’t do. Because the reward of doing what you thought you couldn’t do is greater than anything that could happen. But you’re not going to go skydiving without a professional on your back, for example. When you’re 80 years old, you’re going to do things realistically and cautiously. And the ‘adventure’ that takes you out of your comfort zone doesn’t have to be skydiving. Going to a movie alone was definitely not in my comfort zone. I had never done it before. But it was as liberating as skydiving.”
