If your ceiling is falling down, don't you call someone in? I apply the same principle to myself.

The key to overcoming adversity is to be ready to understand that you have enough, no matter what rug is pulled out from under you. You can't live in fear, or thinking "I'll never figure it out." The more consciously we can understand what we're experiencing, the more that is our protection. So, we run into adversity, but we don't have to stay there if we have imagination and a way to help ourselves change course. Sometimes we can't - knowing the difference is wisdom and the acceptance that we have enough.

If you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?

My life has been amazing. How many other ladies of 76 can say that the snapshot on their senior citizen's card was taken by Norman Parkinson?

I'm loath to do interviews. What comes out is generally not what I meant or thought I was saying or thought they were asking.

I'm doing the best I can with the ravages of time on my body and I'm a work in progress. I can't write a memoir because I can't do it this week or next week... I try to be an inspiration to the young to respect their older people; we can't stay the same, but we do the best we can with what's left. You can't whine about stuff, you have to learn to eat humble pie along the way and keep going, because the alternative is going to happen.

We're all works of art in progress.