its all relative...
i'm in my early 40s, (and at the time of writing) nagged by minor gripes like creaky knees and increasingly persistent tinnitus.. all lovingly cultivated through decades of physical abuse, noise, and reckless, carefree abandon :) but mostly, i feel blessed by the good stuff that comes with this age.. fair to say these days i'm happy with where my garden is at..

except that, my oldest uncle passed away unexpectedly last month, complications from prostate cancer. he was roughly three years into his diagnosis, and didn't quite make his 80th birthday. his ultimate decline was shocking regardless, which went from clear to routine scan to renal failure to pathway in the space of a couple of months. he was on the pathway for 5 days before he died.

good breeding and the miracles of modern technology have allowed my parent's generation to reach their late 60s and 70s intact and in reasonable health, and i'd never looked at them as being 'old', until now.. at his wake, looking round at my family and all those familiar faces gathered, i was completely overwhelmed, not only by his death, but by the enormity of (my generation's) impending loss, dumbstruck by how small and fragile most of them are looking now.. grief stricken, they seem to have crumpled overnight :(

huge sadness..
( maggenspies mayhaps, Sat 9 Jun 2012, 1:54, 4 replies)

on the flipside, a couple of weeks ago in the next village over, a two-year-old kid opened the door in his grandmother's car and was promptly (and fatally) squashed by the back wheels.

Getting old may be shit, but it beats the alternative.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sat 9 Jun 2012, 2:09, closed)

The only real problem is the grief.
I find it very hard to feel bad about people of 70 plus dying, but I always feel it's a shame that someone is going to have a terrible couple of years after it. It's the living you have to worry about.

Mind you, when a young person dies, some people never get over it, so it's worse all round.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Sat 9 Jun 2012, 8:51, closed)

Indeed, Every day is one step closer to our inevitable demise.
It's all a bit pointless when you think about it. All this thrashing around and effort when the only thing to look forward to is non-existence prefaced by the agony and terror of death.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Sat 9 Jun 2012, 12:25, closed)

aye, there's a generation passing on
but most of them lived through some interesting times, a lot of their peers didn't.

it'll be our turn sooner than we'd like but we have to make space for the lucky lucky bastards that get to go to mars. the bastards.
(DreddPirateBob has watched every scifi film ever on, Sun 10 Jun 2012, 2:06, closed)