privilege. at 63 hubby #3 and I inhabit 500 sq ft of roach-infested squalor. First-born's $100000 hip dysplasia coming when I was establishing my wfh medical transcription gig was a challenge. A $1/4 mil preemie after cervical cancer similarly impacted my wfh earnings. Then while supporting my family in a weekly rent motel my brain exploded, 27 aneurysms from an AVM bleed. I will never have control of my bladder, the motor skills to cook and will never live alone, always a burden. good thing i'm phenom 3x.week in bed.
One only gets as much privilege as one has funds to pay for.
Thank you Stephen. Very much on point and close to home. I’ll be 70 in six months, my wife is 77. We love our house and location in the woods. But this won’t work in 10 years, or maybe sooner. Our sons (and their wives) are both in California, and “taking care of a bored grandpa” isn’t in the cards for busy 30-somethings with children. My sister-in-law is 87; she and my brother moved to a “continuing care” place (also in Calif) about 15 yrs ago. But my brother died at age 80. Now she is having a hard time-- another car accident; she may lose her license. This slow but inevitable downhill slide is really hard-- we’re unprepared. I guess we’ll have to downsize, find an apt in SF, try to make new friends in a new place, and see what happens in the next 10 years. Maybe with children, our kids may want some help. “Moving to a new place and starting over” is fun when you’re 25... not so now.
I get what you’re saying, but you sound a little righteous and self-satisfied. The person you know whose only exercise is chewing is living the way he wants to live. Your subtle put-down of him is judgmental and unkind. Leave him alone. Just because you are in splendid health and have loved ones to take care of you is not a guarantee that you’ll sail through old age. Stuff happens.
Also, saying that people go to assisted living places to die, is a cruel remark. These people are making the best of their situations; living as fully as they can and making a decision to enjoy the time they have left in the best way they can.
So congrats on your low carb living, your physical fitness and your boasting about how well you know you’ll be taken care of as you age. But don’t consider yourself a paradigm for the rest of us who are doing the best we can in our own way to live the rest of our lives. Yours is not the only way..
privilege. at 63 hubby #3 and I inhabit 500 sq ft of roach-infested squalor. First-born's $100000 hip dysplasia coming when I was establishing my wfh medical transcription gig was a challenge. A $1/4 mil preemie after cervical cancer similarly impacted my wfh earnings. Then while supporting my family in a weekly rent motel my brain exploded, 27 aneurysms from an AVM bleed. I will never have control of my bladder, the motor skills to cook and will never live alone, always a burden. good thing i'm phenom 3x.week in bed.
One only gets as much privilege as one has funds to pay for.
Thank you Stephen. Very much on point and close to home. I’ll be 70 in six months, my wife is 77. We love our house and location in the woods. But this won’t work in 10 years, or maybe sooner. Our sons (and their wives) are both in California, and “taking care of a bored grandpa” isn’t in the cards for busy 30-somethings with children. My sister-in-law is 87; she and my brother moved to a “continuing care” place (also in Calif) about 15 yrs ago. But my brother died at age 80. Now she is having a hard time-- another car accident; she may lose her license. This slow but inevitable downhill slide is really hard-- we’re unprepared. I guess we’ll have to downsize, find an apt in SF, try to make new friends in a new place, and see what happens in the next 10 years. Maybe with children, our kids may want some help. “Moving to a new place and starting over” is fun when you’re 25... not so now.
Thank you. -- Steve Williams (Washington DC).
Good one.
I get what you’re saying, but you sound a little righteous and self-satisfied. The person you know whose only exercise is chewing is living the way he wants to live. Your subtle put-down of him is judgmental and unkind. Leave him alone. Just because you are in splendid health and have loved ones to take care of you is not a guarantee that you’ll sail through old age. Stuff happens.
Also, saying that people go to assisted living places to die, is a cruel remark. These people are making the best of their situations; living as fully as they can and making a decision to enjoy the time they have left in the best way they can.
So congrats on your low carb living, your physical fitness and your boasting about how well you know you’ll be taken care of as you age. But don’t consider yourself a paradigm for the rest of us who are doing the best we can in our own way to live the rest of our lives. Yours is not the only way..