Read it.
Some things I never thought about. Mostly things I knew but didn't want to think about.
Turning 70 in a few months and the subject suddenly looms very large.
My parents are still alive. We're the same age, you and I, and I'm not used to hearing things like "I'm not sure I'm going to make my next one" (Dad talking about turning 95 in May). Mom, who has suffered dearly the ignoble slings and arrows of poor circulation in her lower extremities, vacillating between giving up and going on, at 92.
My grandparents' were, after all,
old, and like my great grandparents, not expected to live forever (at least on this side of the veil), and it was easier to accept that they had passed, but now we're getting down to the wire.
In my part of the family, I am the 'elder', with Mrs. Joe having passed a few years ago. (I still 'feel' her, a comforting presence in all our lives yet).
There are three of my generation surviving on both sides of the North Dakota family contingent.
In the clan I am known to as "Papa" I am it, with 4 'kids', eleven (surviving) grandkids, and about 15 great-grands (they don't hold still, it's hard to count, and there is almost always another on the way!)
While it is truly wonderful, I have long had the wisdom of my parents to fall back on in a pinch, and that light is fading. Dad talks openly about it, with no illusions about his health. Mom, despite the loss of her lower legs, is still in denial, and when they are gone, I'm at the top of the family food chain, and inevitably, barring accident or incident, in the 'on deck' spot.
It's a lot to ponder. I am at peace with The Lord, and met him when I had pneumonia back in '02 (the only night I ever spent in hospital). I'm not worried for me, and look forward to meeting My Lord and my wife when the time comes.
As former EMS I have seen people give up when, medically, they should have survived--and also fight to stay alive (successfully!) against all odds.
The spirit is definitely involved.
You do the best you possibly can (including praying silently) to fight for them, but they make the choice at some level to fight or let go. It's no tweak of fiction that you see so many incidents in movies and TV where the person giving care is saying "Stay with me...", even to someone mortally wounded.
(I also muse about the futility of giving CPR to pump the rest of the blood out of someone who has clearly exsanguinated, but that's another discussion, and it's Hollywood.)
At the same time, though it's funny how this sort of discussion is moving into the light with the Canadians implementing MAID, the induced friction against "boomers", class envy on the rise, and the howling about 'healthcare' (insurance) costs. I think someone wants to redistribute our 'wealth', even without realizing the greatest wealth we have to share comes from our love for our descendants and decades of experience and adapting to well over a half century of change. Well, that, and we know the scams being perpetrated, have the historical context to put them in, and the wisdom to reject their premises. We can pass that on, and those perpetrating them see us as an existential threat.
