Are you prepared for old age?

I only ask because,over the past year or so,my Aunt,who passed ninety recently,has become increasingly frail,and even lifting the kettle has become a problem.
It's possible to buy a sort of kettle cradle,so that she can simply tip the kettle instead of lifting it,but there are many other bridges to cross.
She's always been pretty active,and it must be difficult to have to start relying on friends and family so heavily,but we try not to make her feel like an invalid.
It got me thinking about my own twilight years. I hope to live at least another thirty,but how many of them will be healthy years?
One of these days I'll fall into a pond/hole/ocean/mine shaft,and won't be able to get out.
Will I simply top myself when the time comes? Will I know when that time is?
Are you youngsters ready for your golden years? Can you face failing health? Does growing old fill you with a sense of dread?
Or are you pretending it's never going to happen?

At the moment I feel like I will never get old, but obviously I will.

It's something that I don't think about, or want to.

But when I am old I will put my faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, like any other time that I feel scared or vulnerable in life.

It's a tough question.

I envy you your faith Scott. Each to his own.

Sorry to get all deep and possibly maudlin (but you started it), but this is a topic we discuss every month when we go and visit Mrs B's 96 year old Gran in her prison camp Old Folks' Home in Congleton.

What's left of her life savings are going towards the £500 a week it costs to house her in a 9 x 6 cell "suite" with a bed and a toilet in it.

She can't even stand up unaided and spends all her time either slumped in a chair, half asleep in the day room or lying on her bed.

Fortunately, she banged her head when she had a fall a few years ago and it's left her a bit radio rentals, so most of the time she hasn't got a clue where she is or what's going on.

I say "fortunately" because it's the most depressing place I've ever visited (and despite what Soul Kitchen might suggest, I did used to have a season ticket at Bolton).

However, she does periodically show flashes of lucidity and that's when it gets really sad because it dawns on her where she is and she gets upset.

It's horrible.

I've told Mrs B to dispatch me with a garden spade when I can no longer wipe my own arse and stick me in the recycling bin.

And if you could get away with doing that legally, I'm deadly serious when I say that's what I'd want.

My Dad used to have moments of clarity,when he too,could see how things stood. His look of despair at such moments was deeply upsetting.
I hope,when my time comes,someone will take me into the country,plonk me in a deckchair under a clear night sky,and leave me to gaze at the wonders of the universe. I'm sure the hypothermia would eventually see me off.

boltonbonce wrote:I envy you your faith Scott. Each to his own.

Go on YouTube and listen to the miracle prayer by a guy called rookey, an old fellow late 80s early 90s.

I'm not trying to bible bash you because you believe in it or you don't.

But I pray to that once maybe twice a week and I have got through some shit in my time, i believe it helped me, whether it did, or didn't i will never know.

But deep down in my heart, I feel a sense of faith that helps me which I cannot explain, and I just feel like I'm being watched over, and my prayers are being answered, I won't go into personal stuff about myself, but that's just my thoughts, and my thoughts alone.

scottjames30 wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:I envy you your faith Scott. Each to his own.

Go on YouTube and listen to the miracle prayer by a guy called rookey, an old fellow late 80s early 90s.

I'm not trying to bible bash you because you believe in it or you don't.

But I pray to that once maybe twice a week and I have got through some shit in my time, i believe it helped me, whether it did, or didn't i will never know.

But deep down in my heart, I feel a sense of faith that helps me which I cannot explain, and I just feel like I'm being watched over, and my prayers are being answered, I won't go into personal stuff about myself, but that's just my thoughts, and my thoughts alone.

I feel much the same scott. I still believe that missing the Wolverhampton Wanderers game to go to my sister's wedding was divinely arranged. It was that day I met Wendy again (for the first time in more than 20yrs) and we 'clicked' for want of a better word. I'd originally planned to miss the wedding because my sister and I were not close but that got fixed on that day too. 

I thank God every day for those two gifts plus all the others that have come along since.

I hope you keep the piss taking mentality with you in old age.

You have obviously studied science and religion beliefs, hats off.

And faith and fate are two different things, knob.

scottjames30 wrote:I hope you keep the piss taking mentality with you in old age.

You have obviously studied science and religion beliefs, hats off.

And faith and fate are two different things, knob.

What? If that was aimed at me I wasn't taking the piss scott. I was absolutely serious. Sorry if you think otherwise.

I'm talking about faith pal, not fate.

That's another story, you might be just lucky lol.

I'm a Christian and always have been scott. I've always believed in the power of prayer. If you've seen "Armageddon" there's a great speech by Morgan Freeman in which he says all prayers are answered even if the answer is sometimes no. I am certain that is the case from my own personal experiences. I won't get into what was happening in the run up to my sister's wedding, only say that I was a very tired and lonely single dad of two boys doing his best to keep his chin up. When I met Wendy again she was (and remains) the answer I needed although I hadn't expected it in quite that way or at that time.

AMEN, keep the prayers going, I hope you and your family are well.
I believe in prayer, and even science now believe in it, if it feels good for you, and me, it can only be good for us.

P.S sorry that I miss understood you by the way.

scottjames30 wrote:AMEN, keep the prayers going, I hope you and your family are well.
I believe in prayer, and even science now believe in it, if it feels good for you, and me, it can only be good for us.

I think so and that's from a man with a degree in Computer Science. And no worries scott, it's sometimes hard to guage the 'tone' of a response you only see as text on a screen. Everyone knows I've had that problem on here plenty of times.

lol, when I'm old, and it can't be nice, your kids are working, you know you've not much time left, your faith must become stronger.
I hope .

Everyone has a guardian angel to look out for them.

My only concern is that the future economy will inflate so that my savings and pension won't cut the mustard and it'll be too late to start working again.

I had this dilemma a year ago when I decided to pack in FT work - I want time to live life to the full, but had to decide at which point I "declared" i.e. stopped chasing money. In the end I thought f*** it - I only get one experience and if I run out of money and die in penury at least I'll have done the things I need to do. 

Only one experience so make it count.

I'm in my 60s and to be honest growing old frightens the shit out of me. My dear old ma died at 88 in a Bolton Old Folks home ( and it was like a prison) and the total lack of care was the cause of her death. I won't name the 'home' as it could lead to more official investigation as it did at the time with a so called 'carer' being sacked for deciding that pneumonia was a 'urinary tract infection' as 'these people' (her words, not mine) 'get them' all the time. it would have been nice if they could have been arsed calling a doctor.
Some level of care!!
Anyway I hope I die from a massive heart attack and just drop down dead.
It would be great to think that it happened from shock when the Wanderers got promoted back to the Prem- but I doubt that I'll ever see that.
In terms of money we're very comfortable now- but to answer the question in the thread- yes impending old age worries me and I'm nowhere near mentally prepared for it.

Lard Lad wrote:Everyone has a guardian angel to look out for them.

Mine must be permanently pissed then.
I think what really scares me is being unable to do the physical things I've taken for granted for so long.
Walking,playing football,gardening,household things. If I had to sit in a chair all day while some prick from Social Services chucked a beach ball at me,I think I'd go mad.
I look forward to celebrating my 100th Birthday on here. 
Nat should be about 16 by then.

rammywhite wrote:
Anyway I hope I die from a massive heart attack and just drop down dead.

That's what I'm pinning my hopes on.

One minute my Mum was a happy 65 year old retiree with plenty of money in the bank, enjoying regular foreign holidays and pottering about in the garden, the next she was was being told by a consultant oncologist that she had stage 4 inoperable gallbladder cancer and she was definitely going to die "at some point in the next 2 years".

She lasted 18 months and it was a truly horrendous experience.

It was an awful waiting game as she deteriorated and slid inexorably towards the inevitable conclusion and because she still had all her mental faculties intact, she knew that every new day took her a step closer.

Horrible.

So all things considered, I want to go out completely unexpectedly because watching Mum die like that was unbearable.