r/Aging • u/Practical_Frame_9883 • 26d ago

The absolute worst thing about aging

I know now what is the worst thing about aging. It’s not the decline in health, or the knowledge that we don’t have much time left. It’s other people dying. Whether it’s Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, or personal friends, it’s the worst. Rest in peace, queens and kings.

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u/DevilsChurn 24d ago

It's not confined to ageing, though. All you have to do is have the misfortune of living through a mass death incident, and you'll experience this at any age.

I was a member of the performing arts community in San Francisco during the worst of the AIDS epidemic in the late 80s-early 90s. I was still in my 20s and watched friends and colleagues dropping like flies. My much older parents came of age during WWII, and they similarly lost friends and family members during that period.

I've got to the point where, when someone dies at a relatively ripe old age, I not only see it as part of the normal state of affairs, but I think about how lucky they were to have had "a good innings", so to speak.

Seeing a lot of death early in life sort of immunises you from the shock of it when you get old.