To ask what age you would say is no longer dying young

No disrepect, and I'm sure your dad is quite active for his age, but he is still 85 years old. His brain is, his heart and internal organs are, his body is, his eyes and ears are.... He will not be 'fitter than most 60 years olds.' Sorry he just won't be.

I know half a dozen people nearby to me in my village who are 82-87, and they present as quite fit and active. They go for 1 to 1.5 mile walks around the village every other day, go to a hobby group, or do crown green bowling in the village, and do bits of gardening and suchlike, and 3 of them still drive, but no way are they/their health/fitness levels anywhere near as good as mine (I am late 50s/nearly 60...)

My DH is just past 60, and the difference between him (and me) and the people 20-25 years older is very noticeable.

I walk 3-4 miles a day, still work 3 days a week, and think nothing of driving anywhere, anytime, and am strong and fit, and if I fall over/trip, I bounce back up and walk on. Someone of 80+ would need an ambulance if they did that. I don't have hearing aids. Most people I know 80+ absolutely do.... Most have to wear glasses. I don't.

DH is much fitter and stronger than them, he still works 30 hours a week, and he thinks nothing of doing 400-600 mile round trip drives/driving around the mountains in Wales... Or up to Scotland and back... No person I know in their 80s - male or female - will drive that distance. Most of them just pootle up and down to the market town - 10 mile round trip... Occasionally they may go to the nearest big town - 25 mile round trip, but that is rare. They usually go with their adult child who is their 40s or 50s. They will often have one of their adult children take them to hospital appointments too. (Hospital is 40 mile round trip...)

DH and I have both had flu, very bad colds and viruses, food poisoning, and covid over the past few years, and we have bounced back really quickly. Many people 80+ will be hospitalised for weeks... Or will die. (From similar things...)

I'm sure you (and/or someone else) will say your 80+ year old dad or uncle or grandad runs marathons every month, and regularly drives to the South of France and back, and could fall from the top of a flight of stairs/steps and get up and walk off, but in reality, the vast majority will not...

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75-80

there’s an oncologist in the US somewhere who he says he doesn’t want medical treatment from age 75. I hope I’m that brave.

Anything over 75 is good going I think

Very young - before 50
Young - before 70
Too early - before 80
Expected 85+

80

Pension age makes you an old age pensioner so that wouldn’t be a young death.

Young to me is a young person. A child teen young adult.

Just dying earlier than you’d expect hope or wish middle aged which I know again is a hot topic here. But your not middle aged at 45 unless your going to live to 90😅

This is an interesting point. When I hear people lamenting that someone “died so young,” they’re usually talking about someone under 50. Maybe that’s just how we phrase things?

I’m 42 and may not see 43, but it doesn’t feel young to me because I’ve already been ill for a decade. I feel about 110. My bloody skin looks it, too 😂

I think I apply the AE Houseman test ‘three score years and 10’

I think it’s relevant to the circumstances. I lost a cousin at 31 but he was born with a live limiting illness and wasn’t expected to reach double figures! My other cousin died was she was 43 of cancer. So for us, cousin 1 didn’t die young infact he lived 20 years more than he should, cousin 2 did die young

My mum just about made it to 70. I still of course feel she was gone too soon but I don’t think I can say she ‘died young’. If she had died in her 60s (which it looked as though she would do for a while) then I would have done given that her official retirement age was 67.

Under 50- tragically young

50-60- far too young

60-73- too young

73+- awful for those who love them but not really young to die

Sorry what. Dry up? My gran lived until she was 86. My mum is 76. I'm in my 50s. I can assure you I've not "dried up"

Are you trolling?

Haha dream on, average life span for women in the UK is 83. It's only 79 for men.

I think 70 is a decent age to get to but it's so close to retirement. I'd like to get to 75 at least.

@3luckystars Many 50-year-olds have teenagers or younger children though (I’m 51) so we’d consider that far too young.

Sadly I have a friend with terminal cancer who’s unlikely to make it through this year and her children are far too young to lose their Mum. 😕

Meant to say that as I had my kids in my early 30’s, they’d be late 30’s if I conked out at 70 so I think they could deal with it.

I’m not ready to leave them yet!

I imagine that the death of anyone below the age of average life expectancy could seem a bit young?

It’s 50

70's or even mid 60's onwards is not "young" to die to me and if I read someone this age has died in the media etc, I don't think that is young.

But I have lost a few people from their 40's onwards. 40's and 50's I would say is very young to die.

I think 70ish. Many people live longer (my Dad’s 87) but I think 70 is a reasonable lifespan. My Mum died in her 60’s and that really felt too young because she’d had me on the older side so I was in my 20’s.

I’d say 70. I don’t really understand all those saying 80. Although many people live to be older than that these days, you surely wouldn’t consider that a 75 year old (for example) had “died young”.

Far too many people take longevity for granted, and seem to strangely believe that illness is just something that happens to "other people."

I think it's very person dependent. My gran is in her 80s , she's in a choir and proudly told me they went to sing at the old folks home at Christmas! She plays county bowls, she runs a walking group, volunteers for a charity and organised a huge toy drive this year and last, she still drives and holidays frequently. She's lovely, social and bright and active.

My other gran died about ten years ago when she was about 70 but she was frail, didn't go far, livid in sheltered accommodation, wouldn't go out after sundown even in winter and even in daylight the local shop was as far as she'd go without someone taking her, she had a very negative outlook on life and when she died it was sad but didn't feel too soon.

Mid to late 70's is before anyone's time in general, to my mind

70

I'm nearly that age and if I die now wouldn't say I'd died young. I've lived 3 score and ten years. My mind is young and I'd like to stay longer but I've had a good run.

80+. But I think that only fairly recently my answer would be 70s. I'm not sure if that's because I'm aging or because people are living longer.