Then There Were Four

Onetta died yesterday. The four bous and three girls have been whittled down to two of each.

There has to be something ironic about the oldest outliving the youngest and the sickest outliving the healthiest - especially when they are all over seventy.

Family gene legacy speak volumes. All of the boys had heart surgery. Two have lung diseases; one died. The sister that died had a lung disease. One of the boys and one of the girls have the same eye disease. One boy and two girls had incurable "other" diseases. Four had chidren. Of the living siblings, only one has children.

All of this happened after the age of sixty-five - except the girl with MS who is still alive. The girl who just died had cancer years ago and survived forty years.

Of the siblings, only four has children.
Nine of the eleven "cousins have children - some of whom are old enough to marry and have children of their own.

I ovten wonder how many of these diseases are hereditary? How many of the grandchildren yet to be born will be afflicted by one or more of the family genes?

How many of the lung diseases are occupational or caused/trigterd by life-long exposures to mold? How much is caused by poor air quality and exposure to farm chemicals? Do we need to wear a mask when we mow and weed-eat and garden?

How many lung diseses are mis-diagnosed? How much disease is being brought in by folks from third-world countires?

Is this rise in disese really caused by global warming, or is it a something "else" that researchers have yet tp discover? Maybe its a natural thinning of the population?

Lots of questions; no answers. Maybe someday there will be a cure for lung and heart disease, but you can bet that for every disese they cure or control, another will take its place. Disease seems to be the bane of humanity.