Posted on 09/02/2025 5:05:34 AM PDT by LouAvul
He had deteriorated to the point he could no longer take care of himself and was totally dependent upon his wife. She passed and they had nobody who checked on them. Gene died a terrible death.
How can an isolated elderly couple avoid such a fate? In a scenario where one suffers diminished mental capability and the other becomes the sole caregiver?
What kind of precautions could they take to prepare for a worst case scenario?
Assume no kids. Nobody locally who might regularly drop by.
Death is never a fun time. It’s always going to suck. If you’re alone it sucks because there’s no one to “save” you. If there are a lot of loving folks around to say goodbye, having to leave them all crying like that sucks too.
To think there’s any way to make it more tolerable is a mistake. #RIP Gene
Of course.
I just worry about the cat getting hungry and butchering my thin parts. I am Neptune Society, but still...
Well, here’s an angle that a lot of people aren’t going to like.
Our time on Earth is but an imperceptible sliver compared to eternity.
As a result, I think people put too much emphasis into how we die, going to extraordinary effort and expense into prolonging the inevitable. It’s where you spend that eternity that counts.
I know, as a Bible-believing Christian, that I will spend eternity in Heaven with my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
How I die, no matter how horrible in worldly terms, makes no difference to me.
Phish, of all sources, put it rather succinctly. “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long”.
In those circumstances, my solution would have been to move the Hackmans and their pets temporarily to a rental home nearby. Call it a vacation while their home was cleaned out and made presentable and livable again. A couple of weeks, a month at most, and the Hackmans and their pets would have been back home with the necessary assistance in place for the final phase of life in ease and comfort.
A very wise man once suggested...
“The future’s uncertain and the end is always near”
Same. Now texting is instantaneous. My husband and I should figure something out. We don’t have kids.
Its a free country and people have the right to be recluses. But it can be a problem when they run into trouble. Its a personal choice.
I was prepared 5 years ago for disability and old age because I knew what was coming after living with TBI and a broken body for 50 years. I had the ramps and equipment and saved and scrimped my entire life so I wouldn’t be a burden to afford assisted living, where I should be. Now I can’t afford it. The Almeda fire changed all my that. The payment on real estate I sold stopped. Biden started taking part of my social security checks to repay emergency catastrophy funds plus thousands in interest. I’m isolated 40 miles away from home and any medical providers and can’t drive. I woke up this morning and simply couldn’t remember where I was. It’s very frightening. I have no one to call and have decided to not call 911 when it gets really bad. Id rather die in a house where I at least recognize a few things. MY cat is the only one I have to say goodbye to now.
He/she died living the way they wanted to, as they had lived their later lives.
Had they WANTED care, they could have gotten it. They wanted to be left alone, out of the spotlight. They’d had enough spotlight.
When someone does not care about someone, someone gets treated like someone does not care.
If you’re dead, you’re dead. Hopefully someone finds me in time to care for the animals before I get to decomposed.
But.... Move in to a senior community like my mother did. It is a nice trailer park for elderly people and the busy body clucking hens always check in or call a couple times a day. I would imagine there are services that will call in a couple times a day if you don’t want to live in a place like that.
I have often heard “get married and have kids so you don’t die alone.”
Death doesn’t often give you much of a choice if you’re alone or not. Just keep your soul ready and the assets covered with a will.
This article if some real food for thought. There is always Visiting Angles, at least it’s something.
I don’t think he died “a terrible death” — if he lived a long and wonderful life. He couldn’t take care of himself at the end — and so it was a fitting time for him to pass, and not recruit more people to save the dying — by dedicating and sacrificing their lives. That’s not a sustainable society — everybody else sacrificing for those who are only dying — endlessly.
That is a dying and death culture. In ancient times, the pharaoh would kill all his servants and vassals so that they could continue to serve him in the next life. Even Jesus advised that “Let the dead bury the dead. Your job is to live your life as fully as possible.”
In the first chapter of J.J. Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man,” he noted that in the first cultures and societies, there would come a time when the oldest and most infirm members of that nomadic society, would stay behind and allow the survivors to move on without hindering them with their needs. Every species also acts in that manner— recognizing that only the most able collectively can best meet the challenges of the future — and not simply tending to the dying — so that they all perish. That is the motif in early movies and most novels.
The future will require each person to learn to take better care of themselves primarily — and not merely demand more care and attention from all the others. That is the pressing problem of our times. That is the root of all our problems. That is what diet, exercise, information processing is fundamentally for — and not just more entertainment and consumption of resources until we die.
of course no one wants to die but it is going to happen one way or another....and then we are supposed to spend many thousands for funerals.
The retirement home where my MIL lived had toilets with sensors and if they weren’t alerted by 8:00 a.m., a wellness check was done by the staff.
I have been estranged from my family for many years. People don't understand that not all families function well. Mine didn't. I had an older brother who seemed to think his reason for living was to make my life as miserable as possible. He succeeded. I grew to hate him, and never wanted to be in the same room as him, ever. I tried to talk to my parents about the situation; but, my Father told me that my problem was "I was too damned sensitive".
At that point, I knew that I wasn't going to get any help with this situation. I left home as soon as I had a job that could pay the bills.
I have since married and hubby and I will be cellebrating our 45th Anniversary in January of 2026. We live in the Seattle area; and, my family is located in Illinois.
This is not a situation that most people can understand. But for my own mental and emotional health, I had to break off relationships with my family. I wish it hadn't been that way; but, it was.
I have no idea what the situation was in Gene Hackman's case; but, people outside of a house rarely know or understand what is going on inside that house. What interactions have taken place. Do I wish my family had been kind and supportive to one another? Yes, but they weren't. So, I focused on my own family.
he was a liberal that was even on Nixons enemies list.
he got the end all liberals deserve
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