A story is not like a road to follow...it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows.
The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all.