A few years ago, I took advantage of the death of David Bowie to write in The Press that I could see myself dying at 69, too. There was a little uproar in my inbox.
I explained that 68.9 years was roughly the healthy life expectancy for a man in this country (it depends on the way of calculating, too)1. And that I would not mind dying at exactly this age to avoid the shipwrecks of old age, my general2.
After 69 years and crumbs, statistically, the pieces start to crumble. You are out of warranty, and if you hope to take out extended insurance, you had to start eating fruits and vegetables well before age 69, without forgetting your minimum 20 minutes of cardio per day…
This had insulted many readers approaching that age – or having passed it – and who said they were in great shape. I had been particularly shaken by the message from one of these healthy grandpas who had suggested that I commit suicide by promising to go pee on my grave…
I found it a little excessive, but this gentleman perfectly announced the pandemic freaks who came out of Facebook like zombies come out of the undergrowth…
So, where was I going with my walker? Ah yes: life expectancy is not the ideal cursor when we talk about aging. We should look at healthy life expectancy. There, the gains are smaller.
Which brings me to the news about old people these days. I summarize: the news is not good. It’s not good to age, any more than in 2016. I’m not talking here about the pieces that are starting to fall off. I’m talking about society.
My colleagues Katia Gagnon and Ariane Lacoursière explored the wave of closures in private seniors’ residences in 2023: 77 RPAs changed their vocation, 2,700 places evaporated3.
Rising costs, staff recruitment problems: the usual factors explain these closures, while the peak of population aging has not yet been reached (it will be in 2031). Net and cruel result: old people are ousted.
Very old ones, too: Monique Lauzeau-Parent had to move at the age of 97. Fortunately, she was well looked after, her family mobilized to find her another home… At $1,000 more per month.
We will talk another day about these high-end retirement homes at $5,000, $6,000 or $8,000 per month, luxury RPAs. You put money aside all your life to pay more than a monthly mortgage payment when you’re old…
It doesn’t make you want to age too long, let’s say!
Also last week, the Commissioner for Health and Well-being, Joanne Castonguay, presented a report showing the deficiencies in supporting the elderly at home. The current system, she says, will collapse under its own weight, financially speaking. Keeping the elderly at home pays off for society and for the elderly, individually.
I emphasize that in 2031, the peak of aging, 25% of Quebecers will be 65 and over. That will be a lot of old people who will need a lot of services of all kinds.
We are currently struggling to take care of our elderly, 20% of the population. What will it be in a few years?
In short, physically, the years beyond 69 are statistically a long management of ailments. And collectively, we take care of our elderly fairly well. I don’t know if at 97, I will have enough resilience to find another apartment… I probably won’t have enough resilience to find the remote control under the ottoman in the living room, at that age.
I’m still consulting my column on dying at 68.9 years old… I notice the date: 2016. I could have sworn, as I wrote at the beginning of the column you’re reading right now, that it was “there barely a few years old.
Eight years, I ask you, is that “a few years ago”?
Eight years that passed so quickly. A snap of the fingers. In eight years, I will be 60. In two snaps of my fingers, then, I will be 68, one year before the end of my warranty…
I see myself going these days, increasing the cardio and doubling my portions of vegetables and fruits. I’m keeping my fifty-year-old resolutions…
It’s contradictory, basically: the more time I spend at 150 beats per minute, the more blueberries and broccoli I eat, the more I take the means to exceed 68.9 years and discover the shipwrecks of advanced age…
I’ll have to tune in, I still have a few years to get my head around it.