Living past the age your parents died
In my Wise Words interview today with Walla Walla winemaker Myles Anderson, he noted that, at 70, he has outlived every male family member. He said:
My father was a very hard worker. He worked for Gulf Oil as an accountant. When I was 17, he died of a heart attack. He was 45. I am the oldest living male in my family. No one has lived as long as I have.So life is something I cherish. I figure any time in the next 12 months might be my last 12 months. So I make decisions around the fact that maybe life is limited, and I’m being chased, maybe, by death. I need to honor that every day. And not waste what I’m doing.
I've heard a lot older people comment that they feel something -- often relief, sometimes sadness -- when they reach the age when their parents died. And then live past that age.
What about you?
(Christopher Anderson photo/Spokesman-Review)