I'm now 73 years old, fairly healthy, and although I have a laundry list of things that are being treated by physicians, none of them is concerning.
But amongst my peers and their siblings there is a lot of talk about how some of "us" are getting pretty well used up. Joint and muscle problems (needing "replacement" surgeries), dementia, heart problems, hearing and vision problems, and so on.
We Boomers, when we were younger, would always say, "If I ever get to that stage, just shoot me." And while it was not a literal thing, the thought was that, When we get to the point where life is just one or another form of "hanging on," maybe it would be better to end it intentionally, rather than allow nature to take its sometimes horrible, sometimes ungodly expensive, course. In fact a friend of mine whose wife is in a "home" for dementia tells me that he has burned through their life savings, and will continue to do so until she qualifies for Medicaid...but she is otherwise healthy and could last for years.
She barely knows who he is (husband of 57 years), and when she does, she does nothing but yell at him.
At that point, what is the point (of living)?
So I ask those reading this, do you know of anyone who has actually and gracefully ended their lives? I do not. Nobody. Including many whose last years were awful for themselves and everyone around them.
In a few cases, it COULD have happened. My father was at that stage and died in a head-on car collision with a much larger vehicle. My M-I-L could very easily have died of an overdose - no autopsy was performed, but otherwise, no apparent cases of suicide.
But amongst my peers and their siblings there is a lot of talk about how some of "us" are getting pretty well used up. Joint and muscle problems (needing "replacement" surgeries), dementia, heart problems, hearing and vision problems, and so on.
We Boomers, when we were younger, would always say, "If I ever get to that stage, just shoot me." And while it was not a literal thing, the thought was that, When we get to the point where life is just one or another form of "hanging on," maybe it would be better to end it intentionally, rather than allow nature to take its sometimes horrible, sometimes ungodly expensive, course. In fact a friend of mine whose wife is in a "home" for dementia tells me that he has burned through their life savings, and will continue to do so until she qualifies for Medicaid...but she is otherwise healthy and could last for years.
She barely knows who he is (husband of 57 years), and when she does, she does nothing but yell at him.
At that point, what is the point (of living)?
So I ask those reading this, do you know of anyone who has actually and gracefully ended their lives? I do not. Nobody. Including many whose last years were awful for themselves and everyone around them.
In a few cases, it COULD have happened. My father was at that stage and died in a head-on car collision with a much larger vehicle. My M-I-L could very easily have died of an overdose - no autopsy was performed, but otherwise, no apparent cases of suicide.
