Carol Purroy has been a disaster-relief worker, a therapist, a travel agent and a writing teacher. This past fall, she celebrated her 90th birthday by publishing a book, Audacious Aging. It’s part self-help, part how-to, with wisps of lighthearted sass and ideas for staying active and having fun at retirement age and beyond. Purroy makes a case for seniors to embrace social media, offers a few money management tips, quotes Hunter Thompson, and discusses which terms to use for your love interest if it seems like you’re too old for “boyfriend” or girlfriend.” (She favors “flame.”) She highights people who’ve made achievements late in life, like Laura Ingalls Wilder, who published her first book, Little House on the Prairie, at 65, and Fauja Singh, a British-Indian farmer who finished a marathon at 100.
Audacious Aging is available on Amazon, and Purroy is set to teach a Truckee Meadows Community College extension class, also called “Audacious Aging,” on Monday afternoons in April. For information, visit the TMCC EPIC 2026 Course Guide.
You’ve taught a lot of memoir-writing classes. What’s one thing you’ve learned about people from that experience?
That everybody’s got a story—or a thousand stories. The more they write, the more they open up and find new things to write about. … Everybody is interesting.
What, for you, has been the biggest mindset change that has come with age?
Being accepting and adaptive is the most important thing.
In any particular way?
Well, for instance, I used to do a lot of handwork. I knitted a lot. I have to brag a little bit …
Go for it!
One year, I knitted 140 hats for homeless people. Sometimes I did two hats a day. And I can’t knit anymore. I used to sew a lot. I used to do embroidery things, and I can’t do that anymore. My hands don’t work. They’re numb, and I can’t even feel when I’m holding a needle. So, that’s been kind of hard to accept, but I don’t have any choice.
How did you come to peace with that change?
You have no choice but to accept it. You know, some people would be resentful and angry, and there’s no point in that. So, you just say, “OK, now I do other things.”
Another thing you wrote about is that, in the U.S., we have a different—often less reverent—perception of age and older people than some cultures do.
And I don’t think we’re going to change that immediately. … That’s sort of why I wrote the book—because we have been brainwashed to think that, when we’re old, we can’t do anything. And it’s true: We have limitations now that we didn’t used to have, but we can still do a lot of things, and we should focus on what we can still do rather than what we can’t do anymore.
What are you going do next?
I don’t know. I keep changing.
Are there any local classes, groups or activities that you personally recommend for seniors?
At TMCC, there’s the EPIC (Educational Programs Inspiring the Community) program, which my little class is going to be part of. And they offer all kinds of things for older people. I would say just find something that interests you. And, of course, the senior centers, too, have a lot of things going. … For instance, there’s a mahjong group. I never thought of playing mahjong, but I’ve read recently that this is terrific for brain aliveness.
Is there anything else you’d like people to know?
One is that people who have purpose in life are much happier and live longer. So, I would say find a purpose and something you love. … If you can live with purpose, you’ll be much happier. And the other thing, which is also about happiness, is dancing. I read an article just this week that dancing is probably the best exercise you can get. I used to go dancing three or four times a week. … When I see people jogging, they don’t smile. They look like they’re an agony. But when you dance, you can’t help smiling.