The Death Diaries Chapter 9 – How am I doing?

Posted on by Opher

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9.

So how am I doing?

Well seeing as how I’ve been dying for a long time now I’m not doing too bad. At approaching sixty seven years of age I’m in good shape.

Firstly – I’m not dead. I have survived the dangerous waters of my youth where dicing with death is considered a reasonable preoccupation.

Secondly – I have not succumbed to a major illness like cancer, heart disease or a stroke.

Thirdly – I haven’t been involved in a motor accident or had a catastrophic trauma that has taken my life.

Fourthly – I have not succumbed to a contagious illness, bacterial infection or viral nasty. They can come out of nowhere! Tommy Tucker died from eating a hamburger while touring the UK in around 1970! Who’d have thought it?

Fifthly – I have suffered from a mental illness that has caused me to consider taking my own life. As I am no longer a young man that threat is decreasing.

I guess I was born lucky!! I have nothing but slow attrition of death to occupy me! I am decaying away at a sedately pace.

As we are only biologically programmed to live to about thirty I am well ahead of the game!

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25 thoughts on “The Death Diaries Chapter 9 – How am I doing?”

  1. Does life seem long or short in the twilight years? Wishing you a sedate and active later life. Certainly I couldn’t dare to say afterlife!

    1. Cheers Georgina. Living it to the full and trying to make the world a better place. What else?
      All the best to you and Trevor too!

    2. It seems to me that life is speeding up. The months and years flash past. It’s probably to do with both the laying down of memories (becoming impaired) and having far longer behind you so that it is relative.

  2. 70yrs and anything over that is a bones – that’s what they always say. My Father made it to 70, my Husband made it to 72 -both died of Cancer – so far as I am of the same age as you, I have AF plus Heart Failure, plus other things. Should I go first Opher, no one knows when that day will come do we (unless of course these so called medics tell us so)

    1. No. None of us know.
      My dad died at only 58. That was too young. But I reckon I’ve had a life. I’ve filled it. Everything else is bonus.
      My message is to live it to the full.

      1. Not everyone has been as fortunate as you, not everyone has had the freedom to do so, not everyone has the health to do so – the World over people have not had what you have had, it is so easy to say “live it to the full” how do you do that if you live in poverty, ill health – we can only hope that we continue to be alive and as for us in the West continue to be pampered, while others probably wish it would end.

      2. I’m sure there is a point that people reach when they want to end it. If I reach that point I hope I will be able and allowed to.
        I don’t deny that I am privileged. I have had a lot of things work out. But I’ve also had to work hard to make things happen.
        But my premise is that we should always try to make things as good as they can be and get the most out of life.

  3. Well you won’t be allowed to end your life in this Country legally, unless they in charge change the rules. We let people continue to suffer whereas you put a dog to sleep. Quality of life Opher depends on so much, many work extremely hard and never get the rewards they deserve. I should not complain I have a lovely home, two lovely Sons. We all moan all complain from time to time I don’t believe people who say they don’t.

    1. I hope they change the rules. People should be given a choice. When suffering and quality of life reach a point there should be the means to end it peacefully.
      It’s difficult with dogs – knowing when. It was so terribly upsetting to take my Sam in but I knew it was best for him.

  4. There is always a way round to ending one’s life peacefully, it depends on the Doctor. I did not want my husband to suffer and I certainly did not want my two young Sons watch him die fighting for his breath as I had to watch my Father. David died peacefully in my arms with his boys holding his hands, a way perhaps so many of us would wish. My beloved Daisy our Cross Border Collie died in my arms, looking at me and hugged and kissed to the end, broke my heart then as now.

    1. Yeah – I’ve just been writing about my Sam and had the tears again. They are so precious.
      David’s death sounds a good one.

  5. We both cry, it was very emotional what you wrote, you at your best. Yes, David had a good death if there can be such a thing. He was terrified of being in pain and I promised him whatever it took that would never happen and it did not. Dr told me few days after David died the cancer had spread to the base of his neck and would have continued, I did not question what the Dr did I thanked him.

      1. At last we agree!! Seriously it is for the best, and I have told the boys when my time comes don’t let me linger, find the money and let me go to Switzerland or if the Dr won’t do it put a pillow over my head, whatever happens do not let me linger.

    1. It’s late and I’ve just finished putting up wardrobes, mirrors and chest of drawers. Children are in bed. It’s been a long day!
      Sleep well. Have a good day tomorrow.

  8. Congratulations on making it this far. Seems like you have a lot of life left in you. 🙂 My mom died at 48, my dad at 59 and my brother at 34. I’m 62. I’m hoping for between 72 and 78. My husband is 81. If he lives to 90 and me to 72, we could go together. It’s not like you can plan these things, though

    1. Not so much DNA as our historic records – I read that the average age of death in early man was 28 years.

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