I have watched my parents get older, more feeble, and finally die. It’s been two months since Mom passed, and Dad died 19 years ago. Time makes it easier, but it still is a difficult part of growing up that you don’t spend much time thinking about when you are young.

Categories: Me

7 Comments

GreenCross4Safety · January 31, 2024 at 5:40 am

So true, so true.

nones · January 31, 2024 at 6:49 am

Yup. My dad died in 2003, my mom in 2011. I spent 18 years on parent duty. When mom died I said “that’s it”, family said “don’t forget about Richard”. He was an aged friend with no other family that we had kind of adopted. Now he is gone and I watch my 76 y.o.sister fade away with dimentia. And who is that old f**k in the mirror? I hope the bottom falls out of our world while I am still able to defend myself…or doesn’t fall out at all…

SmileyFtW · January 31, 2024 at 9:05 am

Having lost my mom when I was 15 and my dad when 18, the hardest part for me now that I am in my 70s is watching close friends succumbing to dementia.

Grumpy51 · January 31, 2024 at 12:18 pm

MANY things worse than death – strokes leaving one unable to communicate, heart attacks leaving 15% EF (ejection fraction – should be >50), dementia (Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal, Lewy bodies), end-stage COPD, end-stage anything, etc etc etc

Love your family and tribe….. life is short….and can be brutal….

GuardDuck · January 31, 2024 at 1:05 pm

My parents are in their late 70’s right now. Watching the physical decline of my mom and the mental decline of my dad is slow motion depressing.

Especially when I realize my mom’s own lack of taking care of herself has lead to her decline and my dad’s inherent stubborn and independent personality is going to make dealing with his decline a soon to happen future nightmare.

Jed Swayze · January 31, 2024 at 3:10 pm

Growing older is a privilege and the old saying, youth is wasted on the young while wisdom is wasted on the old.
I’ll be clearing out of suburban now urban after elder passes on, it will probably be sardine can India or Brazil favela by then.
One good thing is that the grammaws and grampas don’t have to see how fake GAE and retarded it has become.
USMC gramps warned of this time when I told him about participation trophies and Heather has two mommies.
It was an honor to be a pallbearer for the WWII Pacific vet and I keep his photo by computer desk for morale.

Jonesy · January 31, 2024 at 3:30 pm

Yeah, it’s tough. I’m lucky to still have both my parents now that I’ve crossed the 50 yr mark.

But there are little things that happen along the way that let you know time is escaping and you can’t get it back. Years ago, when my son was about 7 or 8, looked at my dad and asked, “Grandpa, are you stronger than my dad?” To which my dad replied, ” Not anymore buddy”.

An innocent question, but a marker for the passage of time.

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