A Funeral and Sobering Math

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by MI-Roger

My wife and I will be attending a funeral tomorrow for the Father of one of my wife's best friends. He was a widower and had been suffering from multiple serious health issues for years. I assumed the friend was around the same age as my wife and I, 62 and 59, but she obviously is much younger as her Father passed at age 76.

Seventy-six and I will be 63 when I retire at year end. Dang! Did I work too long?

Do you own a time machine? If not, take this as an opportunity to roll with whatever time you have not just alive but healthy enough to travel and enjoy it etc.

Lose some weight, get more exercise and get out there and enjoy it.

I'm closing in on 50 and I have had these thoughts for a decade as my wife died in her 40's.

You just have to roll with your current situation and make the best of it. Perhaps start of list of things you want to do and get started on it.

[MI-Roger]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Perhaps start of list of things you want to do and get started on it.

Items already in progress on my 'To Do' retirement list:

• Increased participation in the local car clubs of which I am a member.
• Operating my G-G-G-Grandfathers' Sawmill as an active display at The Henry Ford. We are Members of the Henry Ford and I have been accepted as a trainee for this coming Spring at the Wade House Museum in WI to learn how to operate their nearly identical sawmill.
• Additional volunteering in the local community. I am already a volunteer with the Local Library and an on-call member of the Local Building Codes Dept.

[coschristi]

I'm always interested in stats so I went poking around & I'm still trying to wrap my brain around page 19 of this CDC crude data file from 1980:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/mort80_2a.pdf

Out of the 1,989,841 deaths that occurred in 1980; 357,970 of them were of people aged 85 or older. Out of those 357,970; 6,217 occurred in those 100 years old & older:

Table l-4. Deaths at Ages 85 Years and Over by Single Years of Age, Race, and Sex United States, 1980

100 ---- 2,329
101 ---- 1,373
102 ---- 885

103 ---- 578
104 ---- 401
105 ---- 231
106 ---- 132
107 ---- 93
108 ---- 63

109 ---- 47
110 ---- 25
111 ---- 15
112 ---- 11
113 ---- 13
114 ---- 8

115 ---- 1
116 ---- 3
117 ---- 4
118 ---- -
119 ---- -
120 ---- 2

121 ---- 1
122 ---- 2
123 ---- -
124---- -
125 & over -

What? Surely that's a mistake? Lincoln was President when some were born & were alive during the Civil War? I couldn't find a comparable table for now & I checked every data set I could find, back to 2000.

[MI-Roger]

Originally Posted by MI-Roger

Items already in progress on my 'To Do' retirement list:

• Increased participation in the local car clubs of which I am a member.
• Operating my G-G-G-Grandfathers' Sawmill as an active display at The Henry Ford. We are Members of the Henry Ford and I have been accepted as a trainee for this coming Spring at the Wade House Museum in WI to learn how to operate their nearly identical sawmill.
• Additional volunteering in the local community. I am already a volunteer with the Local Library and an on-call member of the Local Building Codes Dept.

I forgot to include I have enlisted as a volunteer with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.


I think I can keep myself busy in retirement. Although a heated garage with a lift will be a huge help. With that I can do my car restoration during the winter months when some of the other activities are idled for the season.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by coschristi

I'm always interested in stats so I went poking around & I'm still trying to wrap my brain around page 19 of this CDC crude data file from 1980:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/mort80_2a.pdf

Out of the 1,989,841 deaths that occurred in 1980; 357,970 of them were of people aged 85 or older. Out of those 357,970; 6,217 occurred in those 100 years old & older:



What? Surely that's a mistake? Lincoln was President when some were born & were alive during the Civil War? I couldn't find a comparable table for now & I checked every data set I could find, back to 2000.

My grandfather was born in 1863 and died in 1961 at the age of 98. In 1980, he would have been 117. It was always fun to listen to his stories, like the first time he ever saw an electric light or an automobile.