Seeing my mom decline has been one of the saddest experiences of my life. It has made me see that our system of dealing with old age is broken.

Should we be keeping people that have Alzheimer’s and dementia alive? I personally don’t want that for myself and I bet most people, if given the choice, wouldn’t either.

I’ve talked to several people in my generation that say, “yeah, I’m going to get a pill and take it when the time comes.” Suicide when the time is right.

95% of the time, that’s not how it goes down. Where did I hide that pill? I forget because Alzheimer’s crept up on me. Or, one minute you’re happy, you’re 85 and still loving life and then you have an event. Like a stroke. Your brain is affected and you can’t think for yourself anymore.

I’m going to die someday. That’s inescapable. So I want to be able to plan my death. I want to be able to go further than just have a “Do Not Resuscitate” order in my will. What if I get Alzheimer’s or dementia? I don’t want to put my family or myself through that. Planning how I die should be my right as a human being. To say that when I don’t remember who my loved ones are, put me to sleep! Have a ceremony for loved ones so they can say goodbye. Make is special. So they can recount the good times we’ve had and laugh and cry.

Play some Oscar Peterson,

play some Madness,

and of course, play “The Final Countdown”.