Longevity is defined as the length or duration of life.
As a person who mother died a week before her first birthday and having lost my Mom who raised a week before my 17th birthday. I know all to well how fragile life can be. Both my Moms die of cancer. Which probably influenced my decision to work as an Oncology nurse for almost 30 years of my 47 year nursing career.
Note to self: Write a blog post about my nursing career.
As a young person I thought my Mother gave up too soon, didn't want to live or didn't love me. Kids get crazy ideas. As I watched my Mom die, I know she fought and did all she could to stay alive. As a nurse I learned that in-spite of our best efforts the disease is bigger than the will to live and the treatments available.
That knowledge does not make the loss any easier.
A couple of years ago there was flood of colorful pedigrees. A fellow genealogist J Paul Hawthorne came up with a clever idea to show the place of birth of your ancestors. He used an Excel spreadsheet. I had extended the idea to also do a couple of other colorful pedigrees. You can see my original post here. One of them was the Cause of Death and Age At Death Pedigree.
I updated my Pedigree, because after all I did add a couple of years to my age.
The colors are significant also. The dull red is for cardiac disease and the pink is for breast cancer. As you can see my gene pool sucks. So far so good, I have been blessed with good health. My Dad had his first heart attack in his 40s. I was ten so it was when he was 46. I remember he went to the hospital and was there for a few days but that is all I remember.
I can remember the frustration my Dad felt when my Mom in 1964 was given the same chemotherapy that my Mother had in 1948. Mom had Colon Cancer and my Mother had Breast Cancer. They both received 5FU or Fluoruracil. I even gave this medication and it is still used in the treatment of Breast and Colon Cancers in combination with other chemotherapy agents.
Today while working on my Cause of Death and Age Pedigree I also paid more attention to the ages on my chart. Here is my little chart I made. There are 17 people on my chart and I have four full generations and two people from the 5 generation.
The youngest goes to my Mother, Edith Inez Chaplin born in 1916 and died in 1949. The oldest goes to my Maternal Great Grandmother Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin born in 1865 and died in 1950. Interesting that the oldest and youngest are on the same side of the family.
My Dad's side with all the heart disease I noticed my Dad out lived his Dad by 19 years. I hope to out live by Dad by 20 years. I would love to live long enough to see my two little girls into their 30s. They are currently 14 and 12.
Even those four who died in their 40s were way too young. My Grandfather William Thomas Chaplin died when my Mother Edith was 9. She was too young to not have a Dad. She was 24 when her mother my Maternal Grandmother Minnie Elizabeth died.
And let's face it even dying in your 50s and 60s is young.
I have lived longer than 13 people in my direct line. The next ages to beat are 71, 72 and 85. My plan is to beat you 85.
My aunts and uncles have better longevity then my direct line, and I hope I follow their pattern.
The button above I wear on my birthday. I had a magnet but can't find it, that said.
Aged to Perfection and Polished like a fine Gem.
So no matter what age you are enjoy it.
Here is the link to Paul's blog post and
he has a link to the Excel spreadsheet in that post.
If you want to do one of your own.
