Comment by Merad

10 hours ago

My dad died at the end of last year, and was not too different from your grandma. For him the main problem was chronic pain from his failing body. Even fairly powerful opioids from a pain management doctor only helped a bit. Basically all he could do was sleep, eat meals, and sit in his chair in pain.

I feel similar to you, but I wonder if it's one of those those things where age changes your perspective. Dad was in assisted living and had several stints in rehab/nursing home facilities, and in both there were quite a few people with what I'd call poor quality of life who were still holding on to life.

Something we youngsters (I'm 69) may not realize is that people in assisted living still have friends and frequently even sex lives while they are there. They read, play games, and watch movies, just like us. They might not be able to do all the things they could when they were younger, but their lives are not necessarily over.

  • I am looking forward to playing 3 decades of great computer games once I am too old to go out into the woods or do martial arts.

    I love gaming, but I am still too young to do it properly.

    • This. I've bought a lot of games over the last 15 years that I haven't touched let alone finished. I hope to at least play them some day.

    • Any idea what kind of games you'll want to play by then?

      I suspect it won't be hair-trigger combat games in dark dungeons where every strike results in a blizzard of gems and stars flying around the screen while teenagers scream into the mic.

      But if you like Sudoku and crosswords you'll probably be good. That's my jam anyway.

      1 reply →

  • Of course, some truly do “live” there, and good for them.

    And others just sit there waiting to die, unable to even feed themselves.

    I saw plenty of examples of both when my grandmothers were in assisted living homes. Unfortunately my grandmothers both tended towards the latter case.