Old folks dying of,,,,,,old age?

[MrsDeltaB]

Whilst I appreciate there is a general outpouring of someone or the actor of a character that you may have grown up with.

Liz Dawn. Died at 77. Yes. Sad. To her family. But why the outpouring of grief to a person of elder generation who may or may not have simply died of old age?

I can't help but get cross when folks are 'gutted' 'devastated' about the death of an old person dying of, being old! "97 year old died of old age'

Dying in your 70s is hardly uncommon though, is it? Surely we all know people who have died in their 70s? My FIL died at 74 in January of this year and as a life-long smoker I, for one, was not particularly surprised that he died earlier than average. If, for whatever reason, you haven't lived a healthy life your 70s are when it tends to catch up with you. Those who make it past 80 tend to either have 'good genes', or they've taken decent care of themselves.

You can calculate the different life expectancies.

www.riskprediction.org.uk/index_lifeexp.php

My mum died at 80 (so three years older), I'd certainly consider that old age (as indeed I would 77 to be fair). You don't really here people say 'blimey she was only 77, that's no age is it'.

I don't live a particularly healthy lifestyle, and have just completed that life expectancy questionnaire. I was surprised that lifestyle only knocked 1.6 years off my predicted life expectancy. What seemed to be more important was that my close relatives have lived a long time.

My dad died at 81. He was old, but he wasn't near death old. He got cancer.

Unlike my grandmother who died at 105 of old age.

There was a big difference.

""why the outpouring of grief to a person of elder generation?"

Take a good, long, hard look at your compassion levels.

Just because someone dies when they are older doesn't mean they are any less loved or any less mourned. Our care for those we love doesn't decrease with every year they age.

Grief is different from shock. Just because a death is expected or predictable, does not make the grief associated with it any less deep.
When people die unexpectedly at a younger age, the emotions may include a greater degree of shock, but they are not necessarily any stronger.

The life expectancy calendar says that if you've reached 77 your life expectancy has risen to 88!

I can't help but get cross when folks are 'gutted' 'devastated' about the death of an old person dying of, being old! "97 year old died of old age'

Like my grandmother? I was quite attached to her, funnily enough. It was a sad loss for us all and the end of an era

I get it OP.

I want to die of old age but I doubt I'd be able to find a GP who meets those guidelines of personally caring for me for years....

I think that when one's own family members die in their 80s/90s it feels as though the time is out of joint. But when strangers die in their 80s/90s it just seems natural (which it is)

77 isn't that old!

And I think people are sad because of the loss of the person- not that they think people shouldn't die at all.

If you believe the scary reports about antibiotic resistance, we'll all have to learn to cope better with death our lives are artificially extended by medicine at the moment. Any change in that ( like infection becoming a guaranteed killer again) and our perception of a long life will change again. It'll have to.

Not talking about anyone in particular but I'm always a bit at the death of very elderly people being described as "tragic". I mean it's sad for the family but certainly not tragic.

But 77 is not very elderly. It's recent elderly.

Unless you're 20, in which case 60 probably feels really old.

Of course 77 is old and I speak as someone hurtling towards my 8th decade.

You can be old and in good health, active, vigorous, modern, tolerant, curious yada tads yada. You're still old.

I agree the death of an old person isn't shocking but I'm at the idea we can't feel sad about it. Quite apart from anything else, when someone you grew up with dies it makes you very aware of your own impending old age and death (hopefully in that order).

Floisme has put it very well.

It's interesting to look at death statistics.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathregistrationssummarytablesenglandandwalesdeathsbysingleyearofagetables

More male children died in 2016 in the first year of life than from age 1 to 21. Yet, a death of a baby IS tragic and nobody will post on MN that it's normal for a baby to die and what is the fuss all about.

Deaths peak in the 80s, not the 70s, though, even for men. And the death rate must be even higher, considering that there will be less people in the 80s.
So, I'd say that it's not exactly normal for someone to die in their 70s.

77 sounds pretty old to me

It's not, though

Well it is, actually. It is, by any measure, pretty old. If you live to be 77 your life expectancy is another 10 years, so even barring illness and accident in that time, you still have lived 7/8ths of your life. You are by very definition approaching the end of your life, in all likelihood.
By no measure can 77 be said to be young.

FrancisCrawford. Seriously, you can't see why the death of a seven year old would be more tragic than the death of a 72 year old? . Blimey.

I don't think things like car crashes and people in their early 70's are what your quote refers to. I think pp meant more like the death of a 92 year old from pneumonia or similar. Very sad and obviously grief causing for the family, but not "tragic".

My parents both died in their early fifties so i consider anyone reaching 70 plus to have had a good innings...A friend of mines nan died a couple of years ago aged 100...i must admit i struggled to understand her sadness and just thought wow she had twice as long on this earth as my mum and dad.

FrancisCrawford

Your post is very offensive to me. My mum died when I was a child actually. So, I have been a grieving daughter. Of course, I felt a personal sadness towards her death more intensely than the death of an unrelated child. I still think nothing is more tragic than the death of a child in the grand scheme of things. I thought most people thought the same.

Of course most people find - under normal circumstances - the death of a 7 year old girl far, far more tragic than the death of a 72 yr old woman.

I can't imagine how people might feel differently about that. It is beyond me.

It's tragic when someone of any age dies, for those who love them.
I'm 21 and I don't consider a person "old" until they're at least 86 or 87.
I'd think of a 77 year old as being middle aged.