(1238)Shaking hands with death by terry pratchett

As part of the Baby Boomers generation, I am seeing more and more cases of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia, ... in folks mainly older than I. But sometimes in a few who are younger than 60.

A family friend, Fillip, recently died from some urinary ailment. His main complaint was he could no longer chew solid food. A soft diet of porridge and milk simply could not deliver enough nutrients to keep his body functioning. But what could a 91 year old man expect? Many parts of his aging body were almost worn out. He was getting increasingly forgetful, when he could no longer sign a legible signature to cash a cheque, he had to resort to transferring all his funds to his wife's account. His daughter and nephew would prefer to send him to a nursing home, he objected. His wife valiantly soldiered on...

My uncle was 89, suffering from Alzheimer's, when he fell and injured his head. He did not wake up from surgery. His brain was sufficiently affected by the disorder that his wife had to whisper to my mum and I not to believe what he claimed. The last two times we talked to him, facts essentially changed enough in his memory that we had to listen to things that were not true and we tried hard not to argue with him.  

His elder sister of 92 was hospitalised last December. Her muscular-skeletal system was good, but sad that the part of the brain that help her balance malfunctioned. She would wake up and struggled to stand up, yet failed to do so and fell. Her short term memory was reduced to a few minutes at best, thus the constant struggling and falling repeated itself.

My sympathies go to the overworked caregivers. A person who has lost his or her mind is no longer the person we knew them as. The third person mentioned above recognises no one. She is blissfully happy living in her own made up world. The second person was a little paranoid  about others poaching on his property or his cash, one had to humour him to get along with him.

I have a lot of respect for Pratchett to bring up the no win topic of a good, dignified death. It is much needed in every country where the life expectancy of people crosses 72.