How Old Would You Like to Live to Be?

[BaronArtz]

To me it is not a number. I would detest being dependent on others. Let me say this - when I can't wipe my own ass anymore I will want to end it. Thankfully, while I live in the US now, I have access to a health care in a country where euthanasia is legal. I would absolutely want to be euthanized at some point. I am vain. I like to be in control. When the moment comes, let's put on some beautiful Bach music, let's have a last glass of champagne and let's go.

[BtmBearDad]

There's both longevity genes and bad health genes on all sides in my family. My father died at 70, his sister at 67 - both from the same cancer (which also runs in the families of 3 of the 4 grandparents). Only one grandparent made it to 75; but my grandparents' siblings have lived well into their 90's. My great-grandparents - the men lived into their late 80's and early 90's. I have one great-aunt who lived on her own until she passed at 102, another until she was 106. If I could be sure I wouldn't outlive my money, not be a burden on anyone, keep my mobility and mind then I'd actually like to live to see the Tricentennial so 106 years and 1 month for this bear lol

[mike carey]

Rupert's mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch died in 2012 at the age of 103. She was a sponsor of the arts and a philanthropist, and as widely loved as her son is reviled (in places). She was sharp to the end, and lived throughout in her home of 80 years. I wonder if Jerry Hall has considered this.

 

As for me, maybe 80 based on my parents!

[OneFinger]

To me it is not a number. I would detest being dependent on others. Let me say this - when I can't wipe my own ass anymore I will want to end it. Thankfully, while I live in the US now, I have access to a health care in a country where euthanasia is legal...

 

Couldn't have said it better. I, too, will NOT be dependent on others. I'll kill myself or get euthanized before not being able to care for myself.

 

On both sides of my family the relatives have either died young (late 50's / early 60's) or lived until their late 90's. I think I've inherited the longevity genes. So, if I have to pick a number, I suspect I'll live to 85. But, I'll still keep the option open of departing much sooner if I can't care for myself.

 

And, perhaps another factor to my longevity, is the political factor. When the g**damn politicians start encroaching on my well-being or my assets, then everything is going to charity and I'm gone. I will not be dependent on others or a cash cow to the government.

[Decatur Guy]

Boy, it's so hard to put out an age without accounting for variables. I'll say 84.

 

My father is 91 and I think in some ways has been ready to go the past few years. He and my mother have their mental faculties and still live alone and care for themselves, but even simple tasks are getting to be too much physically. Any car trip more than 45 minutes is rough on them. They spend much of their days dozing off in recliners. Their lives started to be more limited in their early 80s.

[+ Charlie]

Mid-80s, which is how long my father lived (86) and is about when the longest lived of his sisters (poor man only had sisters) died.

 

I was relieved to outlive my mother, who died about ten days short of her 48th birthday. Her siblings lived into their 70s and 80s, respectively.

 

My grandfather also had only sisters (6 of them), and at his funeral, a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday, I remember two of his surviving sisters bewailing, "Poor Charlie! He died so young." (They died at 101 and 103.)

 

I am glad to see that I am not the only person who was very aware of outliving a parent: I actually calculated on what date I would live exactly as long as my father did, and I was relieved when I passed it.

[+ purplekow]

a well-liked older guy in an outdoors club I'm in recently committed suicide at around age 73 or so.....he'd started getting forgetful and couldn't do the outdoors stuff he really liked....

 

I do know many older people who are sick and dying secretly do themselves in rather than linger on....cause of death is suicide, but is publicly listed as whatever they were dying of....

 

gee, sorry to be morbid, but this thread made me think of the guy I mentioned above

 

if I get to be chronically sick and unable to care for myself by myself, hard to decide what's best.....I sure don't want to live off the government.....maybe just do what the Eskimos did and put me on an iceberg and shove me out to sea??

I like the idea of being set afloat on an iceberg, lets see, who will I take along to keep me warm......so many choices........someone hairy I think....

My father used to say he would sign a contract for 80 if someone gave it to him. He died suddenly, in a middle of joke, at 78. Right now I would go for 87 but contact me when I am 86 and I may have reconsidered.

[+ Just Sayin]

I told my cardiologist I think 78 would be a great year to see what's on the other side; I really don't want to be in my 80s at all!

[Rudynate]

a well-liked older guy in an outdoors club I'm in recently committed suicide at around age 73 or so.....he'd started getting forgetful and couldn't do the outdoors stuff he really liked....

 

I do know many older people who are sick and dying secretly do themselves in rather than linger on....cause of death is suicide, but is publicly listed as whatever they were dying of....

 

gee, sorry to be morbid, but this thread made me think of the guy I mentioned above

 

if I get to be chronically sick and unable to care for myself by myself, hard to decide what's best.....I sure don't want to live off the government.....maybe just do what the Eskimos did and put me on an iceberg and shove me out to sea??

 

The timing can be tricky with suicide. So often, people who are contemplating it keep putting it off for just one more day, until they are physically unable to do it unless somebody helps them. That happened to a lot of guys during the epidemic. They had a stash of drugs all ready and they kept putting off using them until they were too compromised to do the deed without help and it didn't get done.

[+ Charlie]

The timing can be tricky with suicide. So often, people who are contemplating it keep putting it off for just one more day, until they are physically unable to do it unless somebody helps them. That happened to a lot of guys during the epidemic. They had a stash of drugs all ready and they kept putting off using them until they were too compromised to do the deed without help and it didn't get done.

A friend of mine simply stayed at home, assisted by his partner and a few friends, and refused food, just taking prescribed pain medication, until he died. It took a lot longer than he expected, and I wouldn't recommend it.

[seaboy4hire]

I really dont want to live past 65 absolutely max. One of my day jobs I see EVERYONE. Very well off to homeless and every age bracket pass through daily. Some older people do quite well but many do not. I dont want to become one of those that do not. I joke about it but I'm very serious, the day I can't wipe my own ass is the day to put me out to pasture. I have no issues with asking for help when I need it even though I fight it but if I can't do basic duties then what use would I be?

 

Hugs,

Greg

[Moondance]

I really dont want to live past 65 absolutely max ... the day I can't wipe my own ass is the day to put me out to pasture.

 

Don't sell yourself short, Greg. I'm not there yet, but I have friends who assure me that efficient ass-wiping can still happen past age 65.

[Rudynate]

I have always remembered something a friend told me. It has actually become one of the slogans that I live by. I had just dropped out of college for no reason other than that I was tired of going. A friend of mine, who was very invested in my success, when I told him what I had done, was really upset. I told him, "I just want to be done." He looked at me in disbelief and said, "Haven't you figured it out yet? You're never 'done'!" At the time it didn't make much of an impression, but later, I realized what a wise thing he had said to me.

[bigvalboy]

"Haven't you figured it out yet? You're never 'done'!"

 

I have to say that I'm just a little surprised by the low numbers. We're all different, young, old, life experiences and all, I get that, but I'm still perplexed by the thought of how people intellectualize and view the end of their life. One of my dearest friends and mentors got cancer in his early 50's and decided that he had lived long enough. His father had died at 55, and he would always say that he was fine with leaving the planet to the care of others. He refused treatment, and just allowed his life to slip away. Other than the passing of my parents, it was the hardest thing I have ever gone through, sitting by helplessly as someone makes the decision to decide on an end date. I will never understand someone not wanting to live as long as possible, so long as that life contains quality.

 

Gene was an absolutely brilliant man, with immense knowledge in medicine, history and the arts. Over the last twenty plus years, I just can't help but think about how many lives he would have touched and changed for the better.

 

"Remembering you this morning my dear friend"..

[marylander1940]

None of that "as long as I'm healthy" business, please -- we all understand that -- but what's the NUMBER you'd pick based on a best guess-timate of how long you think you'll be reasonably healthy and able to enjoy life.

 

Lots of prompts for this question -- among them: (a) the unexpected death of David Bowie, (b) a former colleague. age 70, who left her husband of 47 years figuring she still has 10 good years left to be happy, © another friend who, just yesterday, told me that his goal is 85, and that anything beyond that is "old old,"and (d) aging relatives (definitely "old old") who seem to be well past any logical expiration date -- oh, and also: (e) one Forum poster telling another earlier today to stop saying "I'm old."

 

I'm 75 and I'm still healthy and useful to my family baby-sitting and doing other errands for them... I guess if I had Alzheimer's life wouldn't make sense to me in many ways but as long as I'm healthy and able to have sex I want to live as long as possible.

[Rudynate]

I have to say that I'm just a little surprised by the low numbers. We're all different, life experiences and all, I get that, but I'm still perplexed by the thought of how people intellectualize the end of life. One of my dearest friends and mentors got cancer in his early 50's, and decided, that he had lived long enough. His father had died at 55, and he was fine with leaving the planet to the care of others. He refused treatment, and just allowed his life to slip away. Other than the passing of my parents, it was the hardest thing I have ever gone through. Sitting by helplessly as someone makes the decision to decide on an end date. I will never understand someone not wanting to live as long as possible, so long as that life contains quality.

"Remembering you this morning my dear friend"..

 

 

I agree. It's just not how I'm wired.

[AdamSmith]

I will never understand someone not wanting to live as long as possible, so long as that life contains quality.

I feel the same. I watched several relatives go through painful late life, such as one who finally succumbed at 96 to COPD from decades working in the cotton mill, and every one of them treasured being conscious and present through the last moments of lucidness.

[+ Charlie]

I really dont want to live past 65 absolutely max. One of my day jobs I see EVERYONE. Very well off to homeless and every age bracket pass through daily. Some older people do quite well but many do not. I dont want to become one of those that do not. I joke about it but I'm very serious, the day I can't wipe my own ass is the day to put me out to pasture. I have no issues with asking for help when I need it even though I fight it but if I can't do basic duties then what use would I be?

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

I have always remembered something a friend told me. It has actually become one of the slogans that I live by. I had just dropped out of college for no reason other than that I was tired of going. A friend of mine, who was very invested in my success, when I told him what I had done, was really upset. I told him, "I just want to be done." He looked at me in disbelief and said, "Haven't you figured it out yet? You're never 'done'!" At the time it didn't make much of an impression, but later, I realized what a wise thing he had said to me.

I don't how it happened, but Rudynate's post contains a quote which indicates it is from my post (Charlie said: "what use would I be?"), but it is actually from seaboy4hire's post, not mine. I don't understand how the quote insertion program made that mistake.

[Rudynate]

I don't how it happened, but Rudynate's post contains a quote which indicates it is from my post (Charlie said: "what use would I be?"), but it is actually from seaboy4hire's post, not mine. I don't understand how the quote insertion program made that mistake.

 

 

I understood seaboy4hire to be the original source of the content.

[MikeyGMin]

I really dont want to live past 65 absolutely max. One of my day jobs I see EVERYONE. Very well off to homeless and every age bracket pass through daily. Some older people do quite well but many do not. I dont want to become one of those that do not. I joke about it but I'm very serious, the day I can't wipe my own ass is the day to put me out to pasture. I have no issues with asking for help when I need it even though I fight it but if I can't do basic duties then what use would I be?

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

 

No one ever really knows until they get there, but I think you might be surprised. Barring an actual illness, you can be pretty darn fit at 65 as long as you stay active and exercise. Don't let those old bones freeze up. It is still 15 years away for me, but I can't imagine that I'm going to fall apart during that time span. (One never knows, but I'm as vain as the next homo and work to stay fit.) Based on my family history I think I'd like to hold out until the early 80's.

[SFViking]

Two years ago, when I was last hospitalized. 'Twould have been nice to have died then and there, tho without the blood in the hallway. (That was embarrassing.) Death should be quiet. non-verbal, not spoke of.

[Rudynate]

Two years ago, when I was last hospitalized. 'Twould have been nice to have died then and there, tho without the blood in the hallway. (That was embarrassing.) Death should be quiet. non-verbal, not spoke of.

 

So you would rather not have had the additional two years?

[AdamSmith]

[bigvalboy]

 

:D...

[sincitymix]

id like to live to see man settle colonies throughout the solar system and beyond. I want to walk on a planet and feel the warmth of an alien sun on my skin. I want to live long enough for humanity to meet an alien civilization and embrace them as friends....

 

who am I kidding. we will all be dead in 30 years anyways