The Bobby Bones Show

Episode: MORGAN: 93 Years Young: Margaret's Lessons on Life, Love, and Aging Gracefully
Date: November 9, 2025
Guest: Margaret (Abe’s Garden Resident)
Host: (Morgan from Premiere Networks)

Episode Overview

This heartfelt episode features a conversation between the host and Margaret, a vibrant and wise 93-year-old resident of Abe’s Garden. Margaret shares stories and reflections from her nearly century-long life, offering lessons on resilience, love, adapting to change, motherhood, marriage, and the realities of aging. The conversation moves between humorous anecdotes and poignant life advice, culminating in Margaret’s candid perspectives on regret, loss, and cherishing the present.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Early Life and Growing Up (05:11 – 08:12)

• Margaret grew up “in the country on a farm" without electricity or running water, using lamps and river water for daily life.
• She describes a childhood marked by hard work and family responsibility, helping her grandmother with chores such as cutting wood for winter heating and cooking on a wood stove.
• Margaret left home at 14 due to family necessity (“ten children...one less mouth to feed”) and started working, first at an ice cream shop, then moving through various local “dime stores,” learning responsibility and independence early.

2. Work Ethic and Career Path (08:12 – 17:09)

• Margaret details her progression through jobs as a teenager, candidly discussing the need to bend rules (lying about her age to keep working), and how each role contributed to her growth.
• She emphasizes the value of work, humorously noting, "I just want to work. Why? Why is this so hard?” (14:34).
• By 21, she had already worked four jobs and eventually earned her high school diploma through an adult high school, juggling work and study.

3. Education, Marriage, and Family (17:09 – 24:15)

• Margaret attended night college, where she met her husband. They’ve been married for 65 years.
• She transitioned from being a working woman to raising two sons, moving where her husband’s job with Kay Jewelers took them.
• Humor infuses the story of her jewelry collection, as she shares, “He’d bring (jewelry) home...sometimes...Or was it when he owed you an apology and he'd bring one home? That happened too.” (21:38)
• On marriage longevity:
  • “Everything is supposed to be 50/50, but it’s not. It’s more like 90/10 most of the time. I don’t know, you just can’t take too much seriously.” (22:59)
  • She reflects positively but honestly on marital dynamics, tough times, and the importance of humor.

4. Motherhood and Lifelong Learning (24:08 – 26:26)

• Margaret admits to the trial-and-error nature of parenting: “There’s no book on what you’re supposed to do. It’s all learn as you go.” (25:11)
• She highlights the changing approaches to discipline: “At that time, everybody thought spanking was what you were supposed to do. But I learned that you could talk to someone and get the same results.” (24:58)

5. Regrets, Reflections, and Resilience (26:16 – 31:16)

• Margaret is candid about making mistakes, but emphasizes acceptance:
  • “Sure, there are things ... I would have liked to been different. But I wouldn’t have been who I am if it had been different.” (26:16)
  • “Life is a one time thing you go through. So it’s not something I dwell on because I know I can’t change anything. So I do think about things from time to time, but I can’t change it. So I just have to go on.” (26:50)
• She shares a story of a fall that led to hospitalization, using humor to cope: requesting a plastic surgeon give her a bit more than just a repair—"if she just...pulled up some stuff and cut it off and stitched it up, it would have been the same thing." (29:04)
• On aging: “The best part about getting older, I guess, is just racking up the age. The worst part about getting older is everything goes and everything...Well, your body just gravity pulls it towards the ground.” (30:02)

6. Adapting to Change & Technology (34:37 – 38:09)

• Margaret views herself as an “adapter,” embracing technological changes through the decades:
  • “When I was at Vanderbilt, I was the first one to get a computer. I didn’t know how to use the computer, but you better believe I was in there trying to learn...If you don’t try, you fail before anything happens, you’ve already failed. So I’m going to get in there and give it a try.” (35:12)
  • On AI: “You have to just think of what we’re on the edge of—AI...if I am, I want to be in there learning about it just like everybody else, because otherwise you stand still, you don’t grow.” (35:57)
• She radiates curiosity about the future, joking that she’d want to be first to Mars if she were younger.

7. Living in the Present and Perspective on Life (38:09 – 41:45)

• Margaret recommends living for tomorrow, not dwelling on “what ifs”:
  • “You can’t change...You can’t live in the past. You’ve got to live for tomorrow...Yesterday’s gone.” (38:35)
• Daily life as a 93-year-old: She’s active at Abe’s Garden (playing mahjong, baking for fundraisers), and stresses, “life doesn’t stop because you get 93 – you wake up tomorrow and you try to make the best of it.” (39:14)

8. Advice, Wisdom & Vulnerability (41:45 – 43:29)

• On decision-making late in life:
  • “To get old, you lose a lot of your ability to make decisions...you want to make the right decision. And it’s difficult...You lose a lot of your patience. Things that used to never bother me...you just don’t have the ability to blow things off like you did when you were younger.” (40:05)
• Advice to listeners of any age:
  • “Most people worry about the wrong thing. They let things...You worry about things that may happen, could happen. If it happens, it happens, and you deal with it when it happens...The most important thing is spending time with your family and friends and doing good things for people that need help.” (42:19)

9. On Love, Caregiving, and Loss (43:30 – 46:49)

• Margaret opens up about the challenges of her husband’s dementia:
  • “Sometimes he remembers things that happened when he was a child. At times he doesn’t remember me. He remembers Margaret, but sometimes he doesn’t realize I’m Margaret. He knows he was married to Margaret, but he sometimes doesn’t fit all of that in.” (43:39)
  • “It’s really cruel what the disease does to people...I still have my memories...but he doesn’t, so it’s hard.” (44:20)
  • “Well, I think at this point, it’s harder on me than it is on him.” (45:58)
• She shares the pain of being a caregiver and the unique grief of loving someone who can no longer remember you.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Living Without Regret:
  • “I wouldn’t have been who I am if it had been different.” — Margaret (26:16)
• On Resilience and Moving Forward:
  • “Life is a one time thing you go through.” — Margaret (26:50)
• On Marriage:
  • “Everything is supposed to be 50/50, but it’s not. It’s more like 90/10 most of the time.” — Margaret (22:59)
• On Embracing Change:
  • “If you don’t try, you fail before anything happens, you’ve already failed. So I’m going to get in there and give it a try.” — Margaret (35:12)
• On Humor and Aging:
  • “I feel like I look like SpongeBob. I feel like a square blob.” — Margaret (30:35)
  • “I tell everybody, I’m growing my wings because you’re an angel. That’s right. I’m working on it.” — Margaret (31:01)
• On Mental Health and Priorities:
  • “Most people worry about the wrong thing...You worry about things that may happen, could happen. You have to let that go. If it happens, it happens, and you deal with it when it happens.” — Margaret (42:19)
• On the Pain of Dementia:
  • “He may not know that he’s going through it, but I know.” — Margaret (45:19)

Time-stamped Key Segments

• Margaret’s Introduction & Early Life: 02:18 – 08:12
• Working at a Young Age: 08:12 – 17:09
• Later Education and Meeting Husband: 17:09 – 19:40
• Marriage & Raising Children: 19:40 – 24:15
• Parenting Reflections: 24:08 – 25:49
• Regrets & Reflections: 26:16 – 28:54
• Aging and Humor: 30:02 – 31:16
• Adapting to New Technology, Change: 34:37 – 38:09
• Advice for Listeners: 41:45 – 43:29
• Love and Caregiving: 43:30 – 46:49

Conclusion

Margaret’s story is a candid, often witty, chronicle of nearly a century of American life. From growing up without running water to embracing computers and reflecting on the rise of AI, she exemplifies adaptability and resilience. Her lessons on love, letting go of regret, living in the present, prioritizing relationships, and facing old age with grace and humor are universal and timeless.

Final Advice:
"Most people worry about the wrong thing... The most important thing is spending time with your family and friends and doing good things for people that need help, because there’s always someone that’s not as well off as you.” (42:19)

Margaret encourages all, regardless of age, to embrace each phase of life, adapt to change, not sweat the small stuff, and cherish the present and those around us.