Welcome back to Ancient Wisdom, our Sunday series in which writers over 70 tell us how they are aging gracefully. Last week, the poet Rebecca Okrent, 75, wrote a moving essay on the importance of late-life friendships. This week, Jim Heintz, 73, explains how he wound up in Estonia, and why he’s decided to grow old there.
On a vacation to South Africa in 2024, I amused myself by telling people that I came from Estonia. Their eyes narrowed and their lips compressed as they tried to remember where Estonia is and whether they should care. If they asked how life is there, I’d smile and say, “It’s the land of no sex and no future.”
That’s a linguistics wisecrack since the Estonian language has only past and present tenses, and pronouns aren’t gendered. The joke also has another layer for me; I’m trying to build a future here after my 40-year reporting career at the Associated Press came to an end only 18 months after being transferred here from my longtime home in Russia.
I scrounged for a strategy to remain here before my legal residency, which was tied to my job, expired. I had four months to figure it out. The search’s difficulty was compounded by having to fight the paralyzing dismay—maybe self-pity is a better description—about losing a job that had always meant a lot to me. I was 73 years old, but retirement was not exactly in the cards.
Going back to the U.S. would be onerous financially and an emotional blow—expatriation can be great for an old-timer because life in a strange place demands your attention and keeps age-induced brain fog at a safe distance. I’d had a great life in Russia, but I couldn’t go back there, and returning to the U.S. after decades away wasn’t especially appealing.