This Is Us
My Mother Wants a Pill
Extreme longevity is a mixed blessing — at best
“Why can’t I just take a pill?” my mother has pleaded over and over since she turned 100. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”
It’s a perfectly reasonable question, with no good answer. And that’s just not fair. Not to our family, nor to anyone who’s simply had enough of the irreversible losses that come with extreme longevity.
My mother’s problem is that there’s nothing else really “wrong” with her. She was recently diagnosed with emphysema and heart murmurs, but minimal medication keeps them under control. As her doctors never tire of telling us, she’s remarkably healthy “for someone her age.”
But her age is now 101, and the perfectly natural changes that come with such a long life make her feel anything but normal, much less good.
Unfortunately, my mother is not quite what gerontologists would call a “super-ager” — someone with the physical and cognitive health of a person 30 years younger. She’s in much better shape than most her age, but she’s been noticeably winding down for several years. And now that she feels her actual years, she hates still being “here.”
