Expert on aging and faith enters national spotlight

BY MISSY BUCHANAN
Special Contributor

On December 14, Missy Buchanan, an author on faith and aging from Rockwall, appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America. Here is her experience.

To say that I appreciate sharing a national platform with Robin Roberts and her mother, Lucimarian Roberts, on ABC’s Good Morning America would be quite an understatement. I have to believe that God has had his hand in bringing us together for his good purpose. How else would an 86-year-old woman from Mississippi and a middle-age Texan end up on the same sofa opposite a daughter/co-host in a makeshift studio for a TV show talking about faith and the joys and the tough realities of growing old?

I have often thought that the best book review I have ever received came from Lucimarian Roberts. The first time the elder Ms. Roberts called me, she asked me a question that continues to both challenge and humble me. “How did you know what I was thinking?” she asked. She said that until she saw my photo on the book, she had assumed I was much older (music to the ears of someone pushing 60). She wondered how I could have known what was in her innermost thoughts. 

It was true that I had intentionally written the devotions in first-person as if the older reader is speaking directly to God. 

I wanted to give voice to what was in the hearts and minds of many older adults, especially those facing physical decline.

In talking with Ms. Roberts, I shared the story of how I gained insight into the realities of aging as I helped my own elderly parents in their season of decline and also by befriending their peers in their senior residence. 
Looking back, I realize that God was using that season of life to teach me how to listen — really listen — to older adults. 

Lucimarian Roberts and I talked on the phone on several occasions, just like old friends. I think she sensed that I understood frustrations that often accompany aging. It was refreshing to hear her talk openly about her faith.

We even discussed that we both have church pews in our homes. When Robin Roberts discovered how much my books meant to her mother, she arranged for the Good Morning America interview during a time when her mother was visiting from Mississippi. Sitting down for the interview was like chatting with old friends. We taped the session in a meeting room at Robin’s Manhattan apartment building to make it easier for the elder Ms. Roberts, who now uses a power chair, to get around.

From the moment I saw Robin’s eyes fill with tears as she talked with her mother about the challenges of aging, I realized it was going to be a wonderfully intimate interview that could touch the hearts of adult sons and daughters of aging parents everywhere.

It seemed an opportunity to transcend denomination and theological debates to reach a wider audience and focus on what it is to grow old faithfully. 

When we finished taping the segment, Robin asked me to join them for lunch in her apartment. So just the three of us sat at Robin’s dining table and enjoyed chicken salad sandwiches and conversation.
I must also add my appreciation to the production staff at Good Morning America for highlighting the topic of aging and faith. 

Rev. Paul Escamilla, now at St. John’s UMC in Austin where my sister is a member, captures my thoughts. He sent her an e-mail which she shared with me: 

“I cannot recall a network news show handling so transparently, comfortably, and affirmatively the subject of religious devotion.”  

FOR MORE INFO
To see Missy Buchanan on Good Morning America, go to her website: www.missybuchanan.com.
Follow her on Twitter at @MissyBuchanan and read her blog at www.missybu.wordpress.com.