« Good neighbors | Main | You had one thing to do »
February 07, 2008
Happy trails
I was saddened today to read the obituary of Harry Landis, the second to last surviving American veteran of the Great war. He has a ripe old 108, and by all accounts led a long and fulfilling life. I was amused by a quote from his caregiver in his Tribune obituary:
"He only took vitamins and eye drops, no other medication," Riley said Wednesday. "He was 108 and a healthy man. That's why all of this was sudden and unexpected. He was so full of life."
How come whenever an old person dies, his friends and family always say he lived like a roughneck: "He smoke, he drank, he caroused, he didn't exercise. But he was healthy as an ox." I know people need remarkable genes to become a centenarian, but not all 108 year old people in nursing homes can be like this... It's just not possible.
For once, I'd like to see the obituary of a 110 year old woman that quotes her 65 year old grandson as saying, "She had two hip replacements, an artificial knee and the doctors took her left foot cause of diabetes. And she let everybody in her wing of the nursing home know it, too. She wouldn't shut up about it. God, what a bitch!"
There has to be somebody like that in a nursing home, somewhere.
entry no. 1076
Posted at February 7, 2008 03:55 PM