Would you want to live to 100?

[Isitstillchristmas01]

I was just reading about former US president Jimmy Carter who has died aged 100. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live to that age. I don’t know what his health was like and how he lived his life in his later years but that would be too old for me. Even if I was relatively mobile and had my faculties, I would have had enough by then. Also imagine how much everyday life would have changed by then. How do you keep up?!

How do you feel about living to 100?

I'm a Boomer, by year (not by attitude though 🤣) I wanna be pogoing around the day room to some fine punk rock 🤣🎶😎

Yes I would if I'm in good health. So many books I haven't yet read and places to see and things to learn, even if it's just through the tv. Every decade I live I see new perspectives and meet new people, all of whom have something to teach me. Imagine how things will change, then forget it as we have no idea what will really happen. I have kids so I like to think I'd have company for all of my days, but then a book is pretty good company too (I may purely be on audio books by then but my kindle does offer a very large font :-) ).

I see wonderful things in our youth, how much they are learning and how kind and fun they are. I believe they will make our world a better place and I'd like to see it...and I'll do my bit now and help them in any way I can when they take the helm.

I would if I was 99!

It seems like mid 80's is a time when quality of life drops off for most people. There are outliers though who keep going strong for longer.
I feel that it is rising very gradually- although not keeping pace with the rise in life expectancy. But anyway it seems possible that it might gradually creep up a bit more.

My aunt lived to 113 and was fantastically well, but she buried her husband during ww1 and was a single parent to young children at the time. She lived until the late 1990s. She also lost all but one of her children and all of her siblings and friends. It's an incredibly lonely place to be, but she remained grateful for a long life.

Not looking at how my parents are in their 80s. I need to be gone by 75, latest.

I'd like to providing I'm in reasonable health, however I'm 53 and my body is giving out, knees creek, got a frozen shoulder, arthritis in my finger after injury, rapidly going downhill - eek!! so honestly can't imagine what state I'd be in if I live to 100!!

I'd say your aunt was astounding, what a woman!

God no, no way I could live another 50+ years it'd be torture. I struggle with anxiety and depression and couldn't do another 50+ years of it plus declining physical health. I find life an endurance test as it is. so definitely no thanks.

I'm a nurse and I've had many patients who are 100 or above and they all say that they have very little family left and no friends there all dead. I had one lady who helped to make the queens wedding dress amazing people but now very lonely .
Personally I'm very scared of death but this will no doubt change the older I get

I'm not in the UK but I know of a few people who have lived independently at 100 and over. My friend's aunt recently turned 102, and she's one of them and she still gets out and about. Her children are all alive, and she has lots of family in contact with her. Another local woman lived until 107, and although she was in a care home she was pretty good up to 106.

I would be happy to live that long if in good health.

I've been thinking about this a lot as my poor DF showed the first signs of dementia when he was 80. He's now 90 and has been in the last stages of the disease for about 3 years - it is a miserable existence.

I've decided that if I get to 75 - 80 in reasonable health that will do me. I'm working on the same principle that we do with our pets - better a week too early than a day too late. I'd rather go when I'm still able than wait about till I'm incapacitated and lose quality of life.

Nope. Not in today’s world

Hopefully, soon, we won’t have to travel that far!

Jimmy Carter was very lucky in that his wife had incredible longevity too (living to 96) and so until he was 98 he had his family (wife, children, grandchildren) all there around him and making sure he had the best care and never felt lonely.

Dick van Dyke is 99 and very similar, he has a huge extended family, his wife is younger etc... Kirk Douglas was similar, he died at 103 and his wife at 102.

I wouldn't mind living to 100 in those circumstances if I was relatively well but many people at that age just don't have that, or they are unlucky enough to outlive their children and spouse by decades. I am an only child and I don't want to have children so I can well imagine being very lonely in my old age and I doubt there will be anyone around to entertain me in my 90s.

I have a great fear of death and I have always had a feeling that I wouldn't live a 'long' life, that I might just drop in middle age or something. I am very frightened of that and I go through phases of reading about people like Rik Mayall and Roy Orbison etc who just had huge heart attacks in mid-life and it really scares me. I find it hard to suppress those fears.

Let’s home care homes move with the times with music.

The one my dad was in was still obsessed with Second World War and the music of that time. They are still on my social media advertising their “wartime” Christmas fair.

Even though he majority were toddlers or babies in 1939, and would have enjoyed music starting from the 1950s onwards when they were teens.

It used to get on their nerves being made to sing along to stufff they couldn’t give a shit about. When he could still talk, he used to tell them to shut up about the bloody war and D day.

I was born in 1980. It would be like me being forced to listen to Bucks Fizz when I want Blur.

But I’ll probably be handed a flag and made to sing about the white cliffs of bastard Dover.

I don't think I would. My Dad is 'only' 84 but he has lost his wife (my Mam). He's seen a lot of his friends, family, former colleagues, neighbours etc. pass away before him. I think he's quite sad and lonely, despite having a big family (in terms of children and grandchildren). And the world has changed so much since 1940! He doesn't have rose tinted glasses - he acknowledges that a lot of things are much better today. But I think sometimes he misses the old days. Thankfully he doesn't have any major health issues, but he has some minor issues which are an inconvenience and require occasional hospital appointments and daily medication. He can still get out and about and he attends mass daily and hops on buses to wherever he wants to go. We are extremely fortunate that he has reached this age in such great shape and are fearful of what the next few years will bring.