Angry Old Women

Granny will point you to another piece today in which Michelle Hanson responds to the accusation by Help the Aged that baby boomers - Granny is slightly older than them but never mind - failed to save for their old age. MH points out rightly how little she and the rest used to earn then. As a single parent who did not opt for alimony, Granny goes along with that. She will confess she did get left a bit of money at some point; but did she put that in a fund for the future? Did she, hell; she blew it all on a trip round the world. And no, she does not regret it, nor is she apologising. She does have a little money put aside now and fully intends to spend much of it on enjoying herself while she is able. Irresponsible? Not she.

These days, pneumonia is no longer an old man - or woman's- friend, the way it still should be. She watched her old dad constantly pulled back from the brink of death in an ever more weakened, miserable state. He had to go into a home, in consequence, spent his last three years deeply depressed despite medication to control it, envying the fellow-inmates who popped their clogs before him, longing for death. And yet, relatively speaking, he was one of the lucky ones; he was still alert, read, watched television moved about a little. Others - stroke victims for instance, totally incapacitated -are in a much worse state; she knows some. If Granny in her very old age finds herself in need of expensive care for any reason, she doesn't want to live like that, she doesn't want her children to suffer seeing her live like that; she'll end it thanks very much; assuming she's allowed to. (She's making a living will for what it's worth, but very often noone takes any notice or so she's told.) If the government remains cowed by the pernicious pro-lifers, who seem oblivious of the fact that modern medicine will, if allowed, prolong 'life' in a state very far from natural, let alone life-like, if it persists in refusing to let people die, let alone permit them assisted suicide, then the government can bloody well pay for her bedpans. SO THERE.

(On second and third thoughts they could always send the bills to the pro-life organisations. Why not?)