When you are young you don’t think much of dying. You tend to think you are immortal and death as a far away fact. as you become older you start to think more about dying and death.

I am close to sixty-nine and I am thinking more about death than when I was younger. My parents passed away when they were seventy-five and their health problems started to appear in their late sixties. The same age I am in right now. Is the family legacy going to follow me or will I not follow in the paths of my parents.

                           

My mother was afflicted with bone cancer and battled this disease for more than five years. after removal of the cancer and many treatments of chemo and radiation the demon went into remission. After four or five years the demon came back very aggressively. It migrated  to others parts of her body and finally took her. Her death was slow and very painful.

My father was visiting California and he was scheduled to start driving home in the morning. He called me the next morning said he had an upset stomach and was going to wait another day before he started to drive home. That evening his niece called and said she went to get some take out for dinner and when she returned my father was found on the floor dead. He was having a heart attack and didn’t even know it. That major mistake cost him his life.

Recently my true friend had multiple heart by-pass surgery. He is in his mid seventies. How long will this surgery extend his life? Only time will tell. Will this life saving surgery expose him to a more painful and slow death? This surgery may save him from heart failure to just have to experience the pain and suffering of Cancer. Cancer and heart disease is the biggest killer in the US.

A couple of years ago another friend of mine was running his snow-blower and fell over dead from an Aortic aneurism. he died before his wife found him laying on the ground in the snow.

My wife’s mother is in her nineties and in the last year she has deteriorated to the point that she cannot walk and has lost all control of her bodily functions. Medical authorities say her heart and lungs sound good. How long will she have to endure in the sorry state? The quality of life has taken a bad turn for her.

These are just a few examples of death and suffering that I have experienced in my life. Death is a part of life. All of us must some day experience the event. Even now that I am closer to the event,  I still can’t answer the question, How do I want to die?