My next door neighbors both died in their 70s.
My neighbor down the street got kicked out by his brothers after dad went to care. Rumor is he is in the famous slab city homeless camp.
My neighbor across the street told dh today that the guy two doors down that they played football with died. He was 61. his mother is still here. She’s in her late 80s.
The whole pattern is just so sad.
No, it's my generation (Gen X) that are the first who on average will not live longer than their parents or even as long. We are also the first generation to have less than our parents did and we have to work a lot harder and earn a lot more just to have the basic homelife they did. In my generation it's almost unheard of to find women who have kids and don't work outside the home. My generation could never afford multiple kids on one income. The Boomers could and did.
I'm 53 years old and so many of my friends are dead. All of them from cancer. Homelessness is not uncommon with us either as so many are one pay check away from eviction and losing our health insurance. Among my generation very few will be retiring at 65. We will have to work until the grave.
Peggy Sue "And then she had the nerve to ask me what’d happen if I myself am cardiac or stroke crippled before the age 66 deadline At which the federal government finally takes responsibility." You think Medicare will take care of all your healthcare bills? It only pays 80% of what they feel is reasonable. Then you have to pay for a suppliment to pay the 20%. And the doctor has to except Medicare. When looking for an encronologist for Mom, most did not take Medicare. I found 1 who did and had to travel 30 min for him. Doctors don't have to take Medicare. My Mom was in rehab that cost her $150 a day at the time. Her supplimental did not pick up the 50% after the 20 days. She was in 30 days and had to pay over $1000. If for some reason, she would have been in rehab the whole 100 days allowed, it would have cost her 12k.
My neighbor grew pot. He has had a handicapped daughter and his mother enough to qualify for it being legal. He’d do road trips to states where it wasn’t so legal. Idk if he was into the rest of what you say.
However, it’s not like the parents generation was completely squeaky clean EITHER. One of dh’s earliest memories is him accompanying his dad to some pot deal where daddy just tells him to start running and not look. By 12, dh and his brother were growing on the roof.
Drug education doesn't seem to help. Parental guidance, when it exists, is ignored by kids who should know better. It's a sad state of affairs. We have the capability to survive childhood illnesses through medical care, but we are poisoning ourselves with drugs so that many people die young anyway. Our elders, who never used the pot, the cocaine, blah blah blah, can sometimes live into their 100s. Their children and grandchildren, who drank and smoked and toked and have been through unsuccessful rehab multiple times, may not survive to take care of them. Or they may be so addled through loss of brain cells that they're alive but can't manage such a difficult project as caregiving the previous generation.
Then what?
i hugged her and said I was so sorry she’d lost a child. I cant think of anything worse. She sighed wanly and said he was only the second one. He had a brother who passed in the mid 2950s.
Just so sad.
Four years. It’s like the longest yard.
There are situations in which a very old adult has more money and other assets than do the VOA's children, and this can make a difference in health, well-being, and length of life. My mom could afford to self-pay for her assisted-living facility, where she spent the final 2 1/2 years of her life. My siblings and I all have health insurance and, relatively speaking, we are doing well financially either while retired (older sibs) or still working (me and younger sib). But none of us likely will have enough money to live comfortably into our late 90s (mom was almost 98 when she died last month), and our children's finances are shakier, not through any fault of theirs.
And then she had the nerve to ask me what’d happen if I myself am cardiac or stroke crippled before the age 66 deadline At which the federal government finally takes responsibility. I’d go broke, mil. The house would be sold to take care of me. Oh god, now you’re sniveling and upset. My own mom meanwhile is upset that I am no longer willing to leave everything to my 8 figure sisters amd their progeny.
whatever. I’m 62. It will be a slog to make it to 66. With Medicare, I assume it will then be easy peasy street.
Could it be the elders are more experienced in life?
Or more conservative lifestyle?