Senior survey on longevity wishes (family, best, older, travel)
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Glad you enjoy it. I actually edited "joke" into "adage" worried you might think I was making light of your grandfather. My grandmother died in a single car accident with no passengers and the ME thought it may have been a merciful thing as clues pointed to a stroke.
Yes with lower quality of life that we with a higher quality of life may consider to be "without". One bedridden relative is pretty outspoken about it, saying keeping up with people on social media and seeing them in person from time to time has brought more joy than she thought possible. But she has been "blessed" with a good long term memory and poor short term. It doesn't seem to her that she has been bedridden more than a few days and it has been a couple of years. But she can remember most details of her life prior very well.
I used to worry about my mom driving, and so did she, but I'm sure glad she didn't have her stroke while driving.
I was a CNA and did in home health care for a couple of years. I met quite a few people like your relative. They couldn't remember what I had made them for breakfast but they could regale me, for hours, with stories of their 'past'. When I was a lot younger I wondered why 'old people' talked about the past so much. Eventually I thought that, well, they have a whole lot more past than they do future so that's what they talk about.
I've been living hard (and not really by my own doing). By living hard I don't mean wild, or imply substance abuse or any of that. I mean I've had to work way harder / a much greater percent of waking hours than my parents, have fewer assets than their generation, less disposable income, less sleep, and a generally poorer quality of life. Since I believe in cyclical time and not the more typically Western linear time, and to an extant, reincarnation, I would be good with 80 or whatever. As previously revealed longevity in my family is all over the map. My paternal grandma only made it to a year older than I am right now. At the other extreme one of my great aunts nearly crested 100 (made it to 99). Mainly I want to sleep. And if it ends up that the first I get to really sleep with no artificially imposed limit is when I enter into the big sleep, so be it.
It seems pretty clear from these responses that people don't fear death and therefore hope to live forever, etc. and there's no mention of beliefs in afterlife/better life. But it certainly sounds clear that people fear lousy life, suffering life, extremely compromised life.
I once had a young boyfriend who'd been diagnosed with MS at age 16. He said he planned to suicide if X happened or Y failed, but also said, "I reserver the right to move the goalposts." I think we might all reserve that right. I know I do.
I once had a young boyfriend who'd been diagnosed with MS at age 16. He said he planned to suicide if X happened or Y failed, but also said, "I reserver the right to move the goalposts." I think we might all reserve that right. I know I do.
A new boyfriend at age 80 would change my mind, I might perk up for that.
I am almost 62, and I don't want to live past 80, even if I am in good health. After 80, health usually starts to deteriorate, and it usually doesn't get any better!
However, until then, I want to live as full and as good of life as I can -- travel widely, eat what I want, and do what I want -- and if that means spending all my savings, so be it! (Between home equity, a small pension, and Social Security -- as long as SS doesn't go bankrupt -- even after the savings are gone, I would still have enough to live fairly comfortably in a small apartment for the rest of my days, knock wood.)
I'm with you. So long as he is mentally and physically well.
No, not necessarily.... $$$
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