View Full Version : Would You Like to Live to be 100?
Speedy Claire
07-07-09, 07:09 PM
Sometimes in my job I`m lucky enough to meet somebody lovely who makes such an impact on me I can`t stop thinking about them for days. Today I met such a wonderful woman.... 100 years old next month!!
She had all her marbles and I can`t believe I spent over an hour just sitting talking to her about what it`s like to have lived 100 years and to have such a fantastic memory that she can remember being a child of 6 in 1915. She`s lived through 2 wars, one of which she worked as a volunteer ambulance driver and during the other one she was parachuted into enemy territory as there was no medical aid in that area. She`s got so many fantastic memories of what we consider to be historical milestones. She always wanted to be a teacher but her family doctor made her leave school at 15 so she could care for her 38 year old mother!
She eventually became a cook and then started working for St. Vincents school for the blind teaching the blind children how to cook so she finally got her wish to teach. She appeared on Pebble Mill at One (If anyone remembers that?) giving a demonstration on the childrens skills in cookery.
It made me think I`d like to live to be a 100 if I still had all my faculties. Would anyone else want to live that long? Thinking back over the last 100 years what historical milestone would you like to have witnessed or taken part in?
Think I`d like to have been in my early 20`s during the second world war when all the G.I.`s came over bringing nylons and dancing. Would loved to have been part of that scene :D
I`d also like to have had some sort of nursing role during the second world war tho that`s probably got something to do with one of my favourite films Pearl Harbour :rolleyes:
Specialone
07-07-09, 07:42 PM
It made me think I`d like to live to be a 100 if I still had all my faculties. Would anyone else want to live that long? Thinking back over the last 100 years what historical milestone would you like to have witnessed or taken part in?
Think I`d like to have been in my early 20`s during the second world war when all the G.I.`s came over bringing nylons and dancing. Would loved to have been part of that scene :D
I`d also like to have had some sort of nursing role during the second world war tho that`s probably got something to do with one of my favourite films Pearl Harbour :rolleyes:
I like that era also, but for the guns :smt066etc but not the death, suffering, starving.
Its a shame pearl harbour is historically inaccurate, because its not a great film either and that would have been its saving grace IMO.
Also the sixties, i was into the mod scene, big fan of THE WHO, would love to have seen them in their heyday, class !!
captainsmelly
07-07-09, 07:43 PM
Nothing scares me more then being old. Always thought I wouldn't make it to 25, and I didn't plan to. Would be great to see different times though, all the cahnges in the world. But getting all physically and mentally decripid (sp? sorry) and watching all my friends and family die off would be torture.
However I wish I could have been there for when the hippy scene kicked off, punks, acid house especially (see a link here?!)
Speedy Claire
07-07-09, 07:56 PM
Nothing scares me more then being old. Always thought I wouldn't make it to 25, and I didn't plan to. Would be great to see different times though, all the cahnges in the world. But getting all physically and mentally decripid (sp? sorry) and watching all my friends and family die off would be torture.
However I wish I could have been there for when the hippy scene kicked off, punks, acid house especially (see a link here?!)
I agree that if I was suffering or in pain then no, I wouldn`t like to live to be that age. One of the things this lady told me about was how sad it was to watch her family and friends die before her so I guess that would be extremely hard to come to terms with.
During the war in India in which she worked as an ambulance driver when her husband was stationed there she was shot and almost fatally wounded.... they wanted to remove her leg and said if she didn`t she`d die. She refused and is still here to tell the tale... Good for her :D
Milky Bar Kid
07-07-09, 09:23 PM
After spending 6 hours at the local hospital with my gran (66yr old) who 6 weeks ago had all her faculties, and who stated tonight "you suit your eyelids on fire street....":confused: , no, I wouldn't like to live to be 100. Too risky!
No I have no desire to live to be 100. Even if I had all my faculties. But I know I won't cos at 48 I'm already losing my hearing. My mother is 86 this year and has hardly any friends left, they're dropping like flies. It's really hard for her. I want to die like the lady across the street from me at no 1, she was 93. She was sat in her armchair and said to her carer 'my dear, I don't feel very well' and within a few seconds she was gone. I'm not in the least afraid of death but I don't like the thought of pain and suffering. I used to wish that I was 10 years older so I would have had all the fun of the late 1960s but now I'm glad I'm not.
keith_d
07-07-09, 09:32 PM
Living to be hundred with all my faculties and enough mobility get around would be a nice surprise.
Living to be a hundred with all my faculties in a failing body where I need someone to wipe my ar$e for me would be awful.
I agree that if I was suffering or in pain then no, I wouldn`t like to live to be that age.I'm already suffering. Nuff said
sorry for this flippant & self indulgent post :(
jamesterror
07-07-09, 10:32 PM
If I could live to 100 in the condition I am today, sure, otherwise I'll happily go a bit sooner to avoid the pain and suffering.
petevtwin650
07-07-09, 10:36 PM
No.
Lawlessness, dwindling pension funds and ever increasing greediness from the energy companies means a lot of old people are really going to suffer in the future.
Plus my faculties are already challanged enough as it is. :fish:
Reading some of the mails i suddenly feel old. I'm halfway to the 100 and some of things you guys wish you had been part of i remember. Man walking on the moon is my big memory from the 60's - July 1969. Blasting round the Lakes on my first bike '76 to '78.:D
I don't get up in the morning as well as i used too. Too many broken bones and aching muscles that take a couple of hours to unwind. Don't sleep too well cos the painkillers wear off in the early hours. In pain most of the day but i still go out and do the mental stuff cos you can blank pain with adreneline.:riding:
I may not move as well as i used to but i'm in no rush to make room for anyone else. I love life, i love all the memories age brings, and i'm more focused on getting more of them cos i ain't got as much time to get them in.
Like it say below, "If you are not living close to the edge......"
Go for it!!:thumright:
well for one there's almost no chance of me making it to that age, I've only had 1 grandparent make it past 65! I definitely don't want to suffer I couldn't imagine anything worse than after a wonderful life spending the last moments of it bring cared for every minute of the day.
one good thing of being that old- no peer pressure!!
but seriously I want to go like a true rockstar, leave then wanting a little bit more!
I don't think dying frightens me, but I really don't wish to die early. If I think about it too much it can get me down a wee bit, there's just so much I want to do before I go, the realisation that when the lights go out thats it sonny, no more is not a pleasant one. I hate the thought of leaving people behind who need me, I hate the thought of people being sad when I die, but I guess its natural, it happens to us all.
When I do go, I'd like it to be peaceful and quick. I dont want my last thought to be "oh no", and like others have said I really don't want to be a burden to anybody
Going by the ages of other male members of my family I'm probably over half way through my life (im 40), which is also a bit rubbish, but hopefully I can set a new record....
In summary - yes I'm happy to live to be 100, but only if I can have it all my own way!
Alpinestarhero
08-07-09, 07:28 AM
I'd like to live for as long as I am:
- Not in pain
- of sound mind
- have all my senses intact
- am not diseased
Alpinestarhero
08-07-09, 07:36 AM
I hate the thought of leaving people behind who need me,
+1, although really its person...Maria. I don't know who else I could trust to help her out with things like phone calls and stuff. I guess the soho lot seem quite clued up on her hearing, so if I went I'd hope she would ask them for help if she needed it. They always seem to make an effort so that she understands, its really nice
I'm not sure who would miss me...i think my parents and my twin brother, I've got quite a bit closer with my mum, we tend to have quite long chats about everything, proper adult conversations. Me and my dad are best friends almost, and theres a teacher-pupil thing going on because he knows how much I love engines and will show me everything, even if no-one else finds it interesting (his work colleuges wern't intersted in a honda V4 engine with gear driven cams?!?!). Not to mention that whenever we can, we'll go for rides together. My twin brother would be sad becuse we've always been the other persons friend, we'd play lego and computer games, go for bike rides, build ramps, fight, eat dinner together, shared a bedroom and stuff. Now we play Xbox together over Xbox live
My older brother and sister I dont see so much, I know they would be sad but I'm not certain it would affect them as much. My friends come and go, so I don;t know how that group of people really feel about loosing me because no-one has really made an effort to remain friends with me, except my friends Jason and Rob whom I met in my last year of uni
Death is a subject I can't deal with when its in relation to other people. I know why people do die, the molecular reasons, the scientific reasons. But I dont understand why people HAVE to die. I've lost two people in my life that really really made my world a happier place and I don't get why it had to happen. Sometimes, when I'm having a little daydream, I'll suddenly get a pang of panic that "what if maria died? what would I do?"
Scary.
But my own death...well, if it happens it happens. I doubt I'll be aware that I'm dead anyway :lol:
sorry, bit of a waffle there....ignore it
Today I met such a wonderful woman.... 100 years old next month!!
she can remember being a child of 6 in 1915.
She`s lived through 2 wars, one of which she worked as a volunteer ambulance driver
and during the other one she was parachuted into enemy territory
She had all her marbles
Are you sure????? Or did they recruit them young during the Great War???? ;o)
I'd like to live for as long as I am:
- Not in pain
- of sound mind
- have all my senses intact
- am not diseased
Shoot him now!
:lol:
Alpinestarhero
08-07-09, 08:33 AM
Shoot him now!
:lol:
*runs!*
plowsie
08-07-09, 08:34 AM
Was at a funeral on Monday, a relative of mine was there, she is 87, she is as fit as a fiddle and will dance until the night is over with the kids bless her.
Are you sure????? Or did they recruit them young during the Great War???? ;o)
Possibly WW2 and Korea, but yeah - I see what you mean from how it reads :D
I think if I could pick an era to be alive in it would be the 30s, but the 1930s of Jeeves and Wooster, ie moneyed rather than the post-depression, war looming type 30s other people had to live through!
I would also agree with most other people here, I'd not mind living to 100, but if I had to watch my kids and missus die before me I'm not sure there'd be too much worth hanging around for
i went to body combat exercise class yesterday and can hardly move today, feel like I'm 100 years old. When I was young I thought 40 was ancient, Im now 42 and it doesnt seem that old. Maybe when Im 70 Ill want to live to be 100 but no great desire at the moment. Dont know whether I want to know when Im going to die so I can plan stuff and say goodbye to people or whether I want to just go.
Owenski
08-07-09, 08:55 AM
no! I dont want to die young and be a wasted life or anything tragic but I'm petrified of the thought of not been able to look after myself. A mid/early 70's would be nice.
Are you sure????? Or did they recruit them young during the Great War???? ;o)
She said Wars, not World Wars.
Spiderman
08-07-09, 10:51 AM
I'd love to live till i'm 100yrs old but i do think people of her age saw and experienced far more in the last 100yrs than we will in the next 100yrs...if that makes any sense.
in fact i wouldn't mind being immortal just to see how this planet and its human inhabitants turn out.
Will we kill ourselves thru stupid wars?
Will we kill our planet thru miss use?
Will we ever discover life on other plants?
Will they like us, or will they destroy us?
All these questions and more will be answered on the next episode of ... SOAP.
amazing whats happened over the last 100 years really. wasnt much more than 100 years ago the first flight took place. Imagine seeing that progress through to the airliners, stealth fighters, space shuttles etc. You might not be able to see them, hear about them etc :-) but thats another problem.
Hard to tell at the moment whether I'ld like to live that long, your perspective changes so much as you get older so I guess I would need to think that one through in another 40 years or so and see how I felt.
Dont particularly want to think about my life with an end date though, too much to do, too many bikes to renovate.
My Gran was 101 when she died, born in 25th Dec 1898 and passed on Jan 16th 1999, if she had lived a bit longer she would lived in 3 seperate centuries , 19th 20th and 21st, sadly she never made it, she read a newspaper every day, was a sharp as tack till the end, still went to her club 3 times a week til the end, been gone 10 years and I stil miss her.
I'd like to yes. I have a lot I'd like to do and want to spend as long as possible with my Wife and future family.
Speedy Claire
08-07-09, 03:44 PM
Are you sure????? Or did they recruit them young during the Great War???? ;o)
oops sorry I didn`t make that very clear in my original post did I? I should have said she`s lived through 2 world wars and had an active role in 2 wars.
World war 2 she was parachuted in as a medic and the war in which she was a volunteer ambulance driver was somewhere in India when her husband was based there. When I say volunteer ambulance driver she actually drove their own vehicle in and out of there looking for casualties and then treating and transporting them to hospital.
madness
08-07-09, 04:05 PM
No! It saddens me when I see 'old folks' who's bodies won't allow them to do the things that they want to do. It's even sadder when they've also lost their life partners. Getting old sucks and it scares the hell out of me. I've always been an active type and even now at the ripe old age of 43 things are getting noticeably harder. Anyway, I'm sticking my head in the sand for now and forgetting about it.
Speedy Claire
08-07-09, 04:16 PM
I've always been an active type and even now at the ripe old age of 43 things are getting noticeably harder.
Wow.... the wonders of viagra!! :makelurve:
madness
08-07-09, 04:23 PM
Wow.... the wonders of viagra!! :makelurve:
Why would I need viagra? I'm a married man ;)
trumpet
08-07-09, 04:32 PM
Good grief ive only 28 yrs to go,
The old man sits by the open door,
Dreaming of years that have gone before,
As a child when Victoria wore her crown,
In mourning black, with constant frown,
Of clear blue skies, where birds were kings,
No noisy jets with silver wings,
Of summer days, the horse-drawn plough,
Not like the smelly tractors now,
Of two great wars with pain and loss,
Deep in a drawer his Victoria Cross,
Of family, friends and loves long gone,
Alone in a world where he doesn't belong.
The old man heaves a tired sigh,
One hundred years have passed him by,
And now he prays that time will fly,
And quietly, patiently, waits to die.
Family, friends and loves long gone. Sums it up for me.
Speedy Claire
08-07-09, 05:10 PM
Lovely poem Lissa.... I love this one :D
My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went
How do I know that my youth is all spent?
Well, my get up and go has got up and went,
But in spite of it all I am able to grin.
When I think of the places my get up has been.
Old age is golden, So I've heard said
But sometimes I wonder, as I get into bed.
With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup
And my eyes on the table until I wake up.
Ere sleep dims my eyes I say to myself
"Is there anything else I can put on the shelf?"
And I'm happy to say as I close the door
"My friends are the same, perhaps even more."
When I was a young thing my slippers were red,
I could kick my heels as high as my head.
Then when I was older, my slippers were blue,
But still I could walk the whole day through.
Now I'm still older, my slippers are black.
I walk to the store and puff my way back.
The reason I know my youth is all spent,
My get up and go has got up and went.
But really, I don't mind when I think with a grin,
Of all the grand places my get up has been.
Since I have retired from life's competition
I busy myself with complete repetition.
I get up each morning and dust off my wits,
Pick up the paper and read the 'obits',
If my name is missing I know I'm not dead
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.
Doubt I will last that long :)
Don't want to..
I like this one myself
Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;I am not there.
I did not die.
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