<p>The recent threads from folks about dealing with our elders (and I’m dealing with these issues myself with 87 yr . old mom and 90 yr. old MIL) really have made me think even more lately about how our elder celebrities are being treated in the media. Photos of very debilitated people like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elizabeth Taylor lately, for instance,are sad. My non famous mom and MIL would be very upset if they thought anybody in the world was privy to their decline to this extent. Most people who have lived this long are usually pretty strong, proud people and I don’t think they deserve this kind of thing at the end of their lives. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I don’t think of it as sad at all.
Yes people who are ill or declining aren’t at their peak where we would like to remember them.
But they are people foremost & human & I think that if they can gain support from their fans & their fans can gain something by sharing, then I think that is a wonderful thing.</p>
<p>I know so many people who have died in their 20’s, 40’s, 50’s & 60’s, to think about living into their 80’s & 90’s seems a miraculous thing.</p>
<p>Seattle has a beloved local newscaster who has undergone many surgeries and treatments, but has remained in touch with her community & I hope it has helped her.
[Kathi</a> Goertzen: I don’t give up easilyl](<a href=“http://www.komonews.com/news/local/115068939.html]Kathi”>http://www.komonews.com/news/local/115068939.html)
She is now home after her 6th surgery- which lasted for 10 hrs.
I wish her the best.
[Local</a> News | KOMO-TV’s Goertzen released from hospital after brain-tumor surgery](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014139433_kathi06m.html]Local”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014139433_kathi06m.html)</p>
<p>Emeraldkity,I hear you and appreciate your perspective but I am more concerned with people who do not choose to put it out there. To have control over what is put out there is very different to me than having someone’s much younger husband like Zsa Zsa’s (at 96 or whatever she is) doing that or allowing it to be done.</p>
<p>My mom was beautiful in our eyes even when she was dying. She would have been mortified if we even took a picture of her like that, though. She was so very proud of the fact that she looked great for her age, and she always put on make-up, even in the hospital. We couldn’t do that for her toward the end, and I think even in her pain, she would have smacked me silly if I took a picture!</p>
<p>That said, my aunt would have no trouble if I took a picture of her looking like h***. I think it all depends on the person. I would hope that the person whose picture is being publicized is cool with it. If not, it’s really an invasion of privacy.</p>
<p>well like I said I haven’t read those sort of stories- but I suppose as long as people read them, then they will be out there.</p>
<p>I always thought that people like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elizabeth Taylor want to stay in the limelight and that’s why we continue to hear about them long after their careers have died. They employ publicists whose job it is to keep their name and photos out there.</p>
<p>Johnny Carson was a great example of someone who ‘faded away’. He made the choice after he stopped doing the Tonight Show to stay out of the limelight. He wanted people to remember him before he started to decline too much. You never saw photos of him or very much publicity about him after he retired. I thought that was classy of him but many celebrities (and politicians for that matter) feel the need to in the media a lot or they feel like they will become obsolete.</p>
<p>Not that he was a huge celebrity, but I remember back in the early 90’s, Bert Convy (a game show host) was stricken with cancer. He once had a thick, curly head of hair, and the National Enquirer, under the guise of being sympathetic, posted pictures of him bald. And Michael Landon was tortured with tabloid headlines such as “3 Weeks to Go!” He appeared on Johnny Carson to lash out about that. And Liz Taylor (just like Kirstie Allie today) was routinely photographed to show how fat she had gotten. I don’t believe that these photos appeal to our better natures.</p>