Posted on 10/02/2024 6:49:49 PM PDT by Az Joe
After seeing Carter being wheeled outside yesterday on his 100th birthday I, being 70, couldn't help feeling some sympathy for him and some fear of being in the same situation somedays. He looked oblivious to his surroundings and maybe pretty miserable.
I watched my sister deteriorate and die last May from complication's associated with Parkinson's disease over several years, especially in her last few months. She was very miserable and helpless to do almost anything for herself.
If she had wanted to kill herself and end her early misery, she would have been helpless to do it on her own. In the end, she went into hospice care and lasted almost exactly 2 weeks before she died. The hospice worker said when she was being admitted that she probably had about 2 weeks, (I guess they have seen it many times).
My faith requires that I would be expected to endure my medical condition, whatever it was, until my natural end. Of course, this may impact my loved ones greatly, who would be caring for me at least in some ways until the end.
I don't like the idea of all the suffering that might entail for me but also the burden I would be on especially my only child, and other loved ones who are currently dying off themselves slowly.
Any thoughts Freepers?
God bless you for keeping your beautiful promise, to your beloved wife.
Palliative care, our household.✔️
Or a natural progression for almost all living things.
Just because their “old” isn’t 80 or 90 doesn’t mean they dont get old.
Matt: 22:30
It’s time for a new body.
We just lost my mom last year at 91. She was very anxious for several years but then read the book I’ve linked below. She was noticeably calmer for the last year or 2 of her life and not so focused on death even as it got closer.
Love,
O2
What you said.
We did in house hospice with my FIL. He walked into the hospice bed in his bedroom on his own power. The hospice worker said he might last 2 - 3 weeks. He seemed healthy enough but had swelling in his bad legs and feet. We all were shocked. He lasted 3 weeks. I don’t think they ODed him but they did sedate him for anxiety and slow his heart down so he wouldn’t have a heart attack. He was in pain before this but they relieved his pain and he died at home so it wasn’t too bad. He might’ve lasted longer without the drugs but the pain may have tempted him to end his own life.
We can say, “It’s Time, for a new body”
Matt 22:30
You sound like a tough person.
I’m 56 and pretty damn afraid of growing old(er).
Heartening to read about someone who put up the good fight.
NOT heartening that you have suffered.
But heartening that you didn’t cower and fold.
That’s gotta be TOUGH to do!
Thanks for the example.
If your mission was to prepare some others for the journey and let them know that faith and toughness will see them through, then you succeeded.
That’s sad. I see a lot of hope and spiritual thoughtfulness in the responses to this thread.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, Az Joe, then death should have no fear for you, for when you die you will truly and immediately begin to live for eternity in the presence of God.
While it seems forever, because it is all we know and have experienced, our human life is but a blip in time. Life with Jesus and God, though is eternal...longer than can be imagined.
If you have not accepted Jesus as your savior, then you should fear death, as your eternal destination is hell, where, per the Bible, it is darker than we can imagine, it is constantly hot, full of never ending pain, lonely beyond understanding, and you would be so thirsty that the idea of even one drop of water placed on your tongue would bring a measure of relief...hell is not where one would want to spend eternity.
The process of becoming dead may not be enjoyable, but life after death, with Christ, is something to which the saved, those who have accepted Jesus as their savior, will receive as an eternal, joyful gift.
As Paul said, “to die is gain” for those in Christ.
God’s Word also says our days are numbered: thus, it is not up to us to take it upon ourselves to change what God has already ordained.
Have you accepted Jesus as your savior?
My uncle plays tennis and golf at 93.
I couldn’t play tennis now at 56 :)
That’s on me.
And he is NOT the norm, I know.
You folks suffering and/or battling other things like bills etc in older age, I am sorry.
I am shocked (not in a good way or bad) to see the changed attitude on FR regarding speeding up the end of life.
I’m not in (a lot) of pain so it’s still easy for me to say one should finish their life naturally.
EXCEPT that after my head injury 20 years ago, the head pain (not aches) was Agonizing beyond any human words and I Went to bed with a bottle of roxy’s in my hand in case I couldn’t take it anymore.
I took a tremendous number of xanax one night and it was a horrible experience but I lived.
And my pain got better over the next 5 years...NEVER that bad again and 99 percent of time now pain.
God showed mercy.
And I guess I almost went to Hell.
Or not. God decides.
And being in my early 40s, I had the right to keep fighting and seeing if it would stop.
If I was in a lot of pain in my 80s...I dont know what i would do.
I only judge in very obvious situations...like shooting someone during a store robbery.
Not wanting to end agonizing pain later in life.
I leave it to God to judge. He’s so much better at it!!
Yeah. I felt that sympathy too, seeing him being used as a desiccated old political prop with an open mouth.
Just horrible people who would do that. I never liked the guy, but to be sentenced to that.
In the end, death is a part of life. You don’t get to choose how unless it is suicide.
In many ways, how you die can be as important to those you love as how you lived. I hope when my time comes, I have the grace to accept it and the strength to bear up under it.
And I hope that, in my passing, I can, as an example, touch the soul of another person in a way that will make their passing easier.
And I hope I am given the time to repent my sins on this earth.
I had a man I looked up to as a mentor early in my career whose father had early stages of parkinsons or dementia...I dont remember which.
The father was deteriorating but was functional and cognoscente.
I guess one morning, the father woke up, and couldn’t remember the process for putting toothpaste on his brush, then brushing his teeth.
So he went out, had breakfast with his wife and apparently said “you know...its gonna be a bad day when you cant remember how to brush your own teeth.)
After that, he got his pistol, walked out the back of his yard, sat behind a tree, and killed himself. His wife didn’t know what he was doing until she heard the shot.
Long story short...I would imagine it took courage to do that...seeing how he probably didn’t want to die...but saw a closing window where he could prevent himself from being a burden on his family. I understand the religious restrictions on doing what he did...but I see that different then someone who is just depressed and kills themselves
I wasn’t thinking of anyone else but the pain receiver making that decision. I would think more pronounced pain would shorten the period one was exposed to pain.
Understood
No one is talking about fear of dying, Idiot. Stay on topic
My grandma was 105 when she died. After 100 she kept asking, “God, why am I still here?” She was ready for many years.
I can understand her asking that. Even at less than 100 it you might wonder the same thing.
I think whether the period of pain is shortened or lengthened depends on too many things; and I don’t think pain killing drugs have much to do with that.
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