Being 71

According to the Social Security Actuarial tables...

There's a 2.616% chance I'll die this year.

Of those who are or would be 71 there's less than 72%
of us left.

Of that 72%, half of use will be dead in 13.47 years
(and I'll no doubt have full blown dementia).

LINK to the actuarial tables

This is a terrible place to age, I can't go
anywhere without sitting in a vehicle.  This house is going
to need constant repair now but a new one in a more
convenient location in town close to stores would
probably last me with little or  now repair and a small
yard would be less maintenance.  

A newly remodeled house of one we had remodeled
would probably be fine if we had city water and
sewer.  Our roof now has a few more years left in it,
the pump and well, who knows, a small part went bad
a few months ago and it was $250 to replace.  We're
going to have to fix the bathroom now no matter what.
I'll likely need the larger doors so I can push Honey
around in a wheelchair for awhile if it's necessary.

It'd be nice to have someone live in to housekeep and
cook.  Not much of that going on right now but can't
really keep a clean house with all Honey's stuff in here
but I'm not sure we could put up with one (or vice
versa).

Honey refuses to discuss it or think about it until
something smites us.  I asked her where she'd like
to live if something happened to me and told her we
should move there, I'm pretty versatile now.  We only
live here because it was close to her work (for a short
time).  She has no idea and doesn't want to think
about it. I guess we'll do nothing to plan.

Getting old sucks for sure!

I think most people put off planning in general. Few people want to ponder the inevitable and just ignore it. I'm not sure if Hazel and JR have a will, know where they want to move to as things get harder,etc. They still live in a 2 story house and it's painful to watch them go up and down the stairs. He's got some dementia going for sure.. Spent hours hunting his dog last week and it was asleep on the chair in the garage (where it is quite often).

Ma might be fine right where she is. 5 minutes to shopping, hospitals near by, etc. Not much in the way of family/ friends left in Elizabethton. You all have lived down there for 30 years now so it probably feels like home to her.

You wrote:
"Ma might be fine right where she is. 5 minutes to shopping, hospitals near by, etc. Not much in the way of family/ friends left in Elizabethton. You all have lived down there for 30 years now so it probably feels like home to her."

No she wouldn't and she knows it. Neither of us would go to
the nearby hospital if we had any choice at all. Shopping is
ok but a drive away and the bus pickup is a mile away.'

No family/friends here either. She has three friends with
Mirta being the most active. Pat comes down about once
a month. Cindy comes when she wants something even if
it's just company. With the absence of family/friends she's
going to try and hire Rick to water her plants while we visit
up there in June.

We don't have unreasonable expectations that there's friends/family waiting for us up there.
We know everything has changed but Honey says she
wouldn't mind living in a nursing home when it's time or
if anything happened to me but she wants it to be Ivy Hall.
I asked her to visit it when we're up there, it's likely
changed as well but it's privately owned, not the cookie
cutter care of the big corps.

She said she'd like to be snowbirds, I told her that couldn't
last long but it can be done. Should have started as soon
as she retired. She read our two first posts with me and
I sent her an email about an article. I'll go to her email
account and forward it to you.

Well hell, I didn't know you all were coming up in June?! There's been various and potential dates thrown around but nothing I thought was set.

We'd love to have you back in Tennessee. Darrell and Billy Bob will hopefully be around awhile longer not to mention Bud/ Larry (ok, maybe not Larry). So, it gets a little cold in the winter. You don't have to go outside :-)

I've been saying I was coming up in June for 3 or 4 years
'but Honey said she was going to drive me up, then had
doctor appointments or procedures or convalescence
every June.  Told her last year I was going up in June if
I was able whatever her situation.  She could stay here
if she wanted or fly up later.  She claims she's driving me
up this year but I'm ready to hire someone else if she
changes her mind again.

No plans to move up there at this time.  I hope she will
check out Ivy Hall, it's probably changed, she'll get that
our of her head.  Said she wouldn't mind a nursing home
at all but wanted Ivy Hall 'cause the people were so nice
and cared for the patients so well.  She said she'd like to
be a snowbird but said we'd probably be ready to come
home in a couple of weeks, she might be right.  We can
get these contradictions straightened out this year I
think.  Don't really want her to drive me up. Al's Heimer
just kicked in, don't remember where we went the other
day but it wasn't a pleasant experience for me.

EDIT:
Went to Walmart to pick up the lawn mower.  She
fussed/cussed the whole time, traffic, stores she kept
pointing out that I wasn't interested in and fussed/cussed
them for being too high now.