<p>Almost 49, with a 17 year old, my mom had 5 of us by 32, mine born when I was 31. I had my child on my own, and have never had a “steady boyfriend, fiance, or husband” since, and I can say I look 10 to 15 years younger than others my age…hmmmmmmmmmm, I think it is men, not children, that age us!</p>
<p>Sounds more like good genes. ;)</p>
<p>parent2noles; despite pushing my upper 40s, you are the first person I have ever heard share that their dad was in Burma during WWII. My dad never talked about the war, although he did have reunions with some of the guys over the years. Someone wrote a book about the calvary in Burma (Marsmen in Burma), of which my dad was part of, and I just never read it. By the time I was born, my dad had been home for over 12 years, and I had brothers 16, 14 and 9 years older than me.</p>
<p>Interesting topic about age of parents death; my husband was the oldest of three boys and both his parents died in their mid 60s, mostly self-induced… smoking, drinking. I was the youngest in my family, and my parents lived into their 80s. We certainly would have thought my husband’s parents would have been around much, much longer than my parents, but they were both dead long before either of mine.</p>
<p>It’s kind of sad that at ages 17 and 15, my kids had no more grandparents, although they did have a great-grandmother until ages 13 and 11. If you don’t want to do the math, yea, my dad was 82 years old when his mom died - a strange concept for most of us!</p>
<p>I’m on the older side, I think, for this board. 56 years old with kids 21 and 15.
I can still remember my parents going to “Life Begins at 40” birthday parties. I think I am much “younger” in spirit than my parents were at this age. (I’m practically juvenile in my behavior. ;)) My Dad passed away at age 58 from lung cancer (a non-smoker) and my mom at age 80 from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease.) She took incredible care of herself her whole life, always ate the right foods, exercised, etc. I don’t always eat right (I live to eat-she ate to live) and I do try to exercise. Truthfully, it’s tough for me at times to force myself to eat healthy, having watched my mom succumb to the most unimaginably horrendous disease possible, after spending her whole life doing the “right thing.”</p>
<p>My parents were in good shape at my age. My Dad was an ambassador. I’ll never reach an equivalent position in my profession. :)</p>
<p>momof3sons: don’t kick yourself too hard about the eating and exercising, but do realize that had your mom not led such a healthy lifestyle, the ALS might have gotten her 10-20 years younger. Of the ALS cases I’ve seen, they’ve all been quite a few years younger at death than your mom. And yes, it is a horrible disease.</p>
<p>teriwtt-yes, we knew that my mom was well outside the general age parameters when she was diagnosed at age 79. The fact that she was 79 going on 39 was part of what made it an even more unbelievable diagnosis.</p>
<p>Those Oldies But Goodies, remind me of me…</p>
<p>Interesting stories. teriwtt, I used to get my dad to tell me about his experiences overseas. It was quite an adventure - the ship ride over through the South Atlantic (to avoid German submarines) took a month. They eventually made their way to Bombay, India and disembarked. The poverty was incredible and my father gave away many of his rations to the poor, as he was in shock over their condition. </p>
<p>Eventually they made their way to the Himalayas, where he spent time searching for airmen shot down when flying supplies over the “Hump” as they called it (this was before the Burma Road was built). He then spent time in an outpost and received sniper and mortar fire from the Japanese which kept everyone jumpy. One time he shot at a Japanese Zero with a machine gun, which then turned around and strafed his position, causing a ruckus. At one point, he and his men (he was an officer) became lost in the jungle for two weeks. They were reduced to eating the concentrated chocolate they had in military rations at the time.</p>
<p>He spent time censoring mail, acting as the paymaster and other tasks until his unit was sent to China. There they trained Nationalist troops, which he said consisted of mostly “coolies”. Over time, they began to escort supply trains and trucks through China, which was a wild country with warlords, bandits, Communists and Japanese. Once an armed bandit group stopped the column and one bandit (his word) attempted to force them out of the truck. Naturally, it was unsuccessful and in the inevitable firefight his truck driver shot the bandit through the door of the truck.</p>
<p>Eventually he was injured in a truck accident and wound up in a French hospital staffed with Nuns. They were very strict and took two Japanese pistols he acquired in his travels. He was told he’d have to serve for the “duration plus six months” or something like that. </p>
<p>He said the thing he missed the most while overseas was a glass of cold milk. Once, in desperation, he ate some snow in the mountains and promptly contracted dysentery. Another story was when he was sleeping in his tent and a large rat jumped onto him. He promptly shot the rat, which he said maybe wasn’t the best way after the fact.</p>
<p>I would say he most certainly had PTSD from his wartime experiences. He was very strict as a teacher and had zero tolerance for nonsense. Some of his former students years later told me he scared the heck out of them.</p>
<p>He’s deceased now - at 80. I must say I miss him as I write this…</p>
<p>p2n and terriwt,
Sorry I am late to this thread. Interesting stories. My fa-in-law unfortunately just passed away about 2 weeks ago. He would have been 99 this week! He served as a Quartermaster Officer in the China/India/BurmaTheater and had the opportunity to meet Mahatma Gandhi. They were both on the train together when Ghandi was going between Bombay and Calcutta to quell riots, and my fa in law was going to catch a ship to Japan. </p>
<p>My mother was a very sharp, active individual (did work with Eleanor Roosevelt when she- my mom- was in college. Unfortunately she developed Parkinson’s and passed away 3 yrs ago, at 80. My dad is still physically well at almost 86, but has never really recovered from my mom’s death.</p>
<p>I too, am an old broad with young kids, as I say. My 50th bday was several years ago. Let me say I am older than dmd77 (who just had a birthday-- HAPPY BDY) and younger than momof3sons. Sorry to hear your mom had ALS, momof3,. That is an awful disease. Just cruel.</p>
<p>All this talk spurned me to look for that book that I never read. I’ve been going through the basement anyway over the last week, doing some ‘empty nesting’ purging since my younger daughter will be off for her freshman year in August. I’ve been looking for the book, but haven’t been able to find it. I’m sure it’s around somewhere… I just have to locate it. Since my dad never talked about the war, I know nothing about what the Burma Road was about, other than it being a supply road and it involved riding lots of mules!</p>
<p>Jym626, sorry to hear about your father-in-law dying. I work for a hospice agency, and we’ve had specific training about working with veterans. How we support them depends on which war they served in. For instance, vets of WWII came back as heroes. Vets from the Vietnam War came back with little fanfare and recognition from our society. Depending on which war and the vet’s experience with armed combat, determines a lot how they face the end of life, whether they were a hero, ignored or shunned. </p>
<p>I would hope that had my dad met Mahatma Gandi, he would have at least shared that with my family!</p>
<p>Been kind of wondering where you’ve been jym. Sorry to hear the news concerning your family.</p>
<p>On the local front, D1’s laptop hard drive crashed - just when she’s stressed to the max writing her honors thesis. Naturally, I get the panicked phone call seconds later (how come they never call their mother all upset when the road apples fall?) and spend the next hour recovering the remains of a thesis from a corrupted file. Fortunately, her laptop is still two months within the 3-year warranty…</p>
<p>Cool story about Gandhi.</p>
<p>I have my father’s original “Burma Roadster” - which was about a $10 bill that officers would exchange if they met on the Burma Road. Each would sign the other’s “Roadster” or have to pay $10 if they couldn’t produce theirs. You might see if your father-in-law knows about that tradition. Unlikely, but maybe I have his signature on my dad’s Roadster.</p>
<p>my dad smoked and I never have so that settles the health issue. However having passed the 60 threshold, i do understand his distaste for small cars!</p>