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No tobacco but DW is still smokin' hot
Old 11-04-2019, 10:39 AM   #41
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No tobacco but DW is still smokin' hot

Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainsoft View Post
I don't "feel" like I'm 56, at least compared to what I remember of my grandparents in their 50's.
When I was a wee bairn, the oldest person I knew was my paternal grandmother. She was born around the turn of the 20th century. So in the early 1960s, the furthest back I can remember, she would have been just starting her early 60s.

And you know what? At 62 or so, she really was old! It's not just my imagination, either. She was frail and withered and bent. Somehow she made it beyond 70, although she was bedridden her final few years.

But she also was typical for her generation, at least the sample set available to a five year old me. She came from a time when polio was legitimate threat, when diabetes was a death sentence instead of a pill. It didn't help that she burned a pack or two of Pall Malls every day of her life, but so did a majority of her peers. Activity consisted of indoor housekeeping rather than deliberate exercise, and while she wasn't overweight that's probably mostly attributable to being an indifferent cook.

A generation later, my late MIL resembled my dear GM. Another lifelong cigarette junkie, she was already brittle and slowing down in her 60s when lung cancer took her out.

However, fast forward to today and my own DW looks and acts much younger than those women from earlier epochs. Not smoking plays a part, but regardless of the reasons she is simply much younger than our ancestors at a similar age.

Gratuitous thread hijack: I expect her to outlive me by a fur piece, ergo I'm delaying SS to 70 (if I make it that far) for her benefit.
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Old 11-04-2019, 12:36 PM   #42
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My grandparents all lived until late 80's early 90's and spent very little time in a NH (a few months). 2 of the 4 were active and 2 weren't. My mom stayed very active and died just short of 90 with spending a week in hospice. Her sister is still alive and living alone at 94. I think it's a combo of good health habits and genes.
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Old 11-04-2019, 12:59 PM   #43
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Originally Posted by Dtail View Post
On a related note, I wonder at what age do folks start thinking about potential death, even if healthy currently.
I am closing in on 60 y.o. and never think about it except what year to plug in for the retirement calculators.
I remember thinking about death one day in my twenties. I was riding in my car pool back home from w*rk, and as we were going up a curvy hill, a MACK truck was flying down the hill towards us in the curve. My imagination is very vivid, and I got a visceral feeling of being hit head-on. Didn't happen, but you just never know when it will be your time.
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Old 11-08-2019, 03:56 PM   #44
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However, fast forward to today and my own DW looks and acts much younger than those women from earlier epochs.
...
Saying things like that can help prevent your own premature demise...
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