Longevity When you live longer than you expect, birthdays are different. They contain a sort of enduring shock and surprise. For the members of my family who face a genetic illness that has killed my ancestral relatives at 39 and 46, to live into our sixties carries a force of pride and guilt. Why us? Why did we survive when others who suffered long and horribly, could not. Science and medical knowledge allowed us to and our tenacity with the therapies also, but the shock remains. Every year we celebrate two aspects of our lives, our organ donors who made our longevity possible and that his children, and my children – all of them - have escaped this disease and will not carry the shadow of death within their bodies. Today is my brother’s birthday and he is amazed to be 65. A number neither of us planned to achieve. What to do with longevity is a constant question. It becomes coupled with “Of what will I die?” “Great Expe...
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Showing posts from June, 2022