The first time someone referred to me as “elderly” I was 67 years old. I was shocked. Then outraged. Then frightened. How could this be? Hurled too soon into the eve of life by single word? I wasn’t ready for this at all. The encounter occurred in a medical center as I scanned the chart notes written by a new doctor. “Carolyn is a very pleasant elderly female who I am seeing at the request of her primary care physician,” wrote the specialist after my initial visit to his off