General Chat

C**p start to the new year :-(

Our close friend who was in the hospital down here last summer when they found he had melanoma of the brain before going back home to the far north and having radiation etc up there, has been told that 2 more melanomas have been found, and his life is now measured in months. He is exploring assisted suicide (legal in Canada) so he can control the rest of his life.

I don't blame him, I would do the same thing, and arrange it while I was compos mentis.

But he will be the 5th of the "group" to go in the last 5 years.

He is just 6 weeks younger than me, and he told me the above in my birthday message. The eldest of the group died in late November last year, age 91.

So sorry to hear this Sylvia. <3 <3 <3

Sylvia <3 <3

thank you.

It was hard news to get.

So sorry Sylvia, it is hard losing special long term friends <3 <3

Ann ..............

thank you

that group of friends got together in 1968, so 50 years of friendship :-(

<3 Sylvia <3

Sorry to hear this, Sylvia. xx

Sorry to read this Sylvia, I hope your friend can go in the manner he wishes to. Not a lot one can say. :-(

Thank you all ...... as Nyx says, there isn't a lot one can say.

I'm still trying to work out what to say to him :-(


Thank heavens that assisted suicide is now legal here, and that he can go as he wishes.

I'm so sorry to hear this sad news, Sylvia. My thoughts are with you.

Meet the new year, same as the old year, eh? Every year we hope it will be better ... but every year we get older. :-)

Ours ended with a bang. The tall dude was ambulanced to hospital on Christmas Day in another near-fatal bout of diabetic complication brought on, in a matter of hours, by another virus. Two days in intensive care and one on the ward and he was back out, still snuffling and coughing, but alive.

And on Saturday, his dad died. We seldom saw him; he was 95, in decent health and good spirits but living in a nursing home after his wife died 5 years ago (he was disabled from birth), quite a distance away, where the brother and nasty SIL live, and the travel is just difficult for us.

I kept meaning to have the tall dude's male-line DNA tested to see whether we might get a clue about his dad's father's family, since his dad never knew who his father was. Oh well, I can still do it, Dick just won't be here to tell.

I did find a distant cousin for him a year or so ago, at Ancestry. I think her great-great-grandfather was Dick's maternal grandfather's brother. She kindly sent some family photos and reminisences I was able to show him.

And when I heard his stories and did the research, it turned out that his mother was born about 5 miles from where my mother's mother's mother's family lived in Nottinghamshire. Hm, maybe the tall dude and I are cousins ...

Melanoma, also internal, did my dad in. Yes, I imagine I would make the same plans as your friend.

The things you never imagined yourself having to think about when you were a sprout.

So sorry to read your news, Sylvia.

Thank you all xx

Sorry to read that you are going to lose someone you care for Sylvia. As we age it happens all too frequently but we don't 'see' ourselves as getting old until these losses occur.

x

Sorry to read your news Sylvia , always a time for reflection <3

Sorry to hear of your horrid start to the year Sylvia (and yours too Joonie). It is always hard to lose those we are close to and as we get older it seems to happen more frequently.

We also had a death in OH’s family immediately before Christmas.

I am sorry to read about your friend Sylvia, at least in your country he can control his end.

Sadly as we get older, losing our friends become inevitable

Sorry about your friend Sylvia. It takes a long time to find and make close friends, who are of your own era and share some of the same memories. We lose more as we get older and it makes us realise we need to make the most of the time we have. It's good he can decide the time himself though and not have to travel to other countries like we would.

How sad, Sylvia, I hope your friend will be comfortable for his last months and can arrange his passing as he wishes. It s hard to know what to say to people when they have such bad news.

A relative last year told me she was very poorly with liver cancer and tbis year she has had to stop treatment as it wasn't helping and just made her more ill. Her hubby is very depressed because of the worry and is also awaiting tests for Parkinsons. It's difficult to know what to say if I phone her, she's in Aylesbury. My cousin in Buckingham is back in hospital again, she had a month in there in November then was rushed back in before Christmas. Allowed home for Christmas, she has now been admitted after going for a check up today, her pacemaker was replaced just before Christmas. Her 81st birthday is coming up next week.

My o.h. is waiting to see a psychiatrist about his memory problems but there is a backlog of 1000 cases to be seen. He is getting more and more confused, it's wearing for me to have to keep repeating answers to questions and I have to write notes for everything or he forgets what's what! He gets upset and frustrated. At the mo he is still working, he has just over a year to go, he is coming up to 64.

Joonie, I am sorry about your poor start to the year and hope you can do the dna tests soon. It will still be interesting to find things out.

Let's hope the year ahead gets better for everyone

Lizxx