G. Stanley Hall is the man described above, after he completed a career of the highest distinction. A founder and president of the American Psychological Association, in the last half of his life Hall became a pioneer in the field of the psychology of aging. Hall died in 1924, and published to the end of his days. A generation later, another well known psychologist, Erik H. Erikson, described eight major stages of human development, each with attendant tasks and outcomes. The basic task of the mature individual, Erikson said, is a resolution of the polarity between integrity and despair.
Old age is a time of reflection, of recalling the events of a lifetime.
To the point that a person has successfully responded to the problems of each of the earlier life stages, she or he establishes a sense of wholeness and integrity, of a life well-lived. If the elderly person looks back with regret, seeing only a series of missed opportunities and failures, the final years will be ones of despair. Implicit in this is a love for family, without a wish for any of them to have been significantly different. I suspect he says this to other patrons too, and it would be surprising if anyone finds it offensive. The man obviously enjoys his work, and rightly takes pride in it.