Herb and Jamaal by Stephen Bentley for December 07, 2020

Blink and you miss it. Also works if you watch a lot of TV.

It always comes as a shock when you realize that “the elderly” means you!

I’m 8 years older than Dad was when he died

I never will get used to being older than he was in every memory I have of him

I’m 21 years older than my father was when he died, it’s been 50 years.

Most of my family has lived to be centenarians, (grandmother was 107) my father is still alive at 89, and my mother is 88, sadly she has C-19 and is not doing well. I am 60, most days I don’t feel old.

It’s all perspective

Only one person in the world, for only a few seconds, can have no one younger them die. Only one other person, but usually for a few years, can only have people younger them die. That’s the nature of mortality – the ability to die at any age. I still have about 8.5 years to outlive Dad, and almost exactly 9 for Mom, but hopefully have made enough better health decisions and get enough cooperation from other perils to keep myself useful to this world as long as possible.

But how do you live. Looking back at how my parent were when they were old makes me want to check out earlier, if you know what I mean.