Two contrasting stories; A few years ago, I went to the house of an eighty year old lady, who had boiled a cheap bath mat in her washing machine. As I went in with my tool kit, she introduced me to her 'boyfriend' [we're living in sin, she told me with great glee]. I had to strip the machine down and clear it three times; she sat there grinning whilst her boyfriend called her all the names under the sun, but with real affection underlying it all. I envied them. My paternal grandmother, a very bright old spark, had her 100th. birthday a couple of years ago. The party was wonderful, and all that ailed her was slight [and I mean slight] deafness. After that, she seemed to give up. Six months later she had a fall in the night [she wasn't wearing her alarm], was taken to hospital, and died two months later without really coming back to the real world.

I could go on for ages with many other examples, but I won't. The body may give up, but most of the causes of senility [depression, malnutrition, boredom, alcohol / drugs etc.] are avoidable. I hope that when I'm eighty I'm still pulling them [my other Gran was at ninety three, but that's another story!]