There doesn’t appear to be too many bad examples in here, so allow me.

I smoked cigarettes for a long time and, at 59, got to experience lung cancer. I’m currently 62 and still dealing with it. I’d probably be dead now if the mass in my lung hadn’t adhered to the back of my chest cavity and eroded into one of my ribs causing a ridiculous amount of pain. Lung cancer usually goes undetected until it spreads to other places, like the brain, so I guess I got lucky. It did pop up on an adrenal gland, but we nuked that one too. I have another small mass in my other lung that will probably have to be radiated too. I’m also dealing with emphysema and a mouth half full of fucked up teeth. (So glamorous!)

Having no wind in my sails and trying to talk around and eat with both upper and lower partials just sucks all around. I’m only 62, but I feel like I’m 82, and I only have myself to blame.

I once met a 32 year old lady holding her 1 year old grandson. She told me she had her daughter at 16 and her daughter had to out-do her and have her baby at 15. At the time, I was her age with my own small children…

On another note. I was close friends with a fellow who was the youngest of 10 kids from the same mother and 2 different fathers. Her first 8 kids were fathered by a man who died in the 1940’s. She ended up with another man and had 2 more sons, one born in 1958 and then my friend in 1962. She was in her 50’s when she had him! Unsurprisingly, my friend was orphaned by the age of 12 and ended up being raised by his older siblings along side nieces and nephews who were often times older than he was.