Comments about ‘Betsy Hart: An aging parent reminds us of our own mortality’

SThe writer sounds like a fine person and I do get the drift of her piece on ageing.

Still I wondered why she was writing "my Dad did all the right things" followed by apparent amazement that he is finally ageing - at 87. Surely the fact that he "did all the right things" and is only now "ageing" noticeably is perfectly consistent.

I hope I can console her with my own experience:

1. My Dad did some of the "wrong" things, like smoking, and died in his early seventies.

2. My Mom lived twenty years longer but was far gone mentally years before that.

3. Though I once joked about being an "orphan" when both parents were gone, you will be a big girl then and appreciate, I should think, that when people live a long life and then die they are probably ready, and welcome, that. I refer to your Dad not your Mom who died at 62.

Did your Mom die of colon cancer? I notice that many sufferers from colon cancer die at the age of 62 or 63, I mean much more often than other ages. That seems to have been true for generations.