My older brother’s high school girlfriend was beautiful and popular, and the sister of a good friend of mine, so I get reports on her now and then.  Yesterday, I learned that she has multiple health challenges.  Turning eighty next month, she suffers from debilitating arthritis and back problems.  She has had the same knee replaced twice and now needs both hips and a shoulder replaced.  In evaluating her for surgery, they found a (benign) tumor in her stomach that had to be removed before anything else could be done.

I find myself wondering, given the enormous drain of healthcare costs in our country, whether or not all those procedures make sense for someone her age.  Easy to wonder that when it’s about someone else.

On the same day, a former colleague was telling me that both his ninety-nine year old parents are alive and well.  When my colleague’s physician asked him what medications his mother was on, he didn’t know.  He asked his mom and she said that she was on medication.  “What?” he asked. “Oh,” she replied. “I take a baby aspirin every day.”

It’s the luck of the draw.