Second that, PoppaG; it sounds like a rough row indeed.

My mother in law is 84 and as full of bright vim as anyone could ask, a life full of friends and projects and things to get done. She is an awesome example, having healed herself of numerous things over the years just by dietary care, exercise, and attitude.

For my own part, I feel quite young, much less antique than my mubers indicate, except for a certain stiffness in the auld back from time to time. I have plenty of itneresting pursuits that I expect will keep me chugging along after I retire, but for now, that still a bit in the future. The only sign of age that bothers me, really, is...well, I forget, but anyway...(just kidding)...my eyes are less sharp than they were, and I may need to get new lenses in a few months or a year -- not glasses but actual lenses in the eyes.

Aside from that I guess I am aging as well as can be expected, and as for mortality, I am not particularly worried at this point. I have had a few clos ebrushes over the years, and my sense is that whatever way it happens, it will be an interesting adventure, not an overhwelming loss, and I expect to be interested as hell in watching it happen.

A