My grandfather ate biscuits, grits, and “strick-o-lean” every day of his life. He had a heart attack.....at age 90!
I think he considered it a blessing because he and my grandmother lived in their own house instead of a nursing home and he died without ever being an invalid or having to depend on others for his care.
Tomorrow I am attending a beloved aunt’s funeral in rural Virginia. She died day before yesterday.
She would have been 94 this coming December. She lived alone way out in the country (had a daughter nearby), hadn’t been to town in years, and until two years ago she grew all her own vegetables, canned them, kept about an acre of land mowed with a riding mower, etc.
She had never seen a doctor except the ones who came to her house when she delivered her three kids in the early ‘30s, had never been to a hospital (she was scared of them). She believed in taking vitamen supplements and treated ailments with herbs she’d grow. She mostly ate homecanned veggies, but also ate bacon, sausage, chicken.
She became sick about two weeks ago and her children finally sent her to the hospital in an ambulance. I was at the hospital when the lady came into her room to get all her medical history info.
When the lady asked “ever been treated for this, that, ever been hospitalized, who is her primary doctor,” her daughter was saying no, no. The lady looked stunned. I said, “She’s never been to a doctor, wouldn’t go to one, she treated herself with herbs and vitamens.” The lady looked at the age on the papers and said “She must have done it right.”
The folks at the hospital were stumped, I don’t think they’d ever tried to treat a person with no medical history, no personal physician to consult. So, they just made her comfortable and she slipped peacefully away to her Lord.
I hope I have some of her genes, and her demeanor. She loved life, was the most gracious, loving, intelligent, and thoughful person I’ve ever known.