Koroner’s Korner “Live to 100?”

Can you or I live to be 100 years old?  Maybe the real question should be, ‘Do we want to live to be 100?’  I always wanted to live to be 100 years old.  When I was in the Marines and Green Berets, our physical conditioning lent good support to our child-like notions that we were invincible.  After all, with rifles in hand, we would slog over 40 miles in the mountains, across streams, not sleeping, carrying over 80 pounds of gear on our backs; what could possibly stop us?

My aunt Eunice Smith, affectionately known as ‘Eunie’, lived to be 100.  We would stop by to visit her and she would show us pictures of close to fifty members of the Green family, with her about 3 years old and my aunt Leta Faye Mann, a baby on my Grandma Green’s lap.  Eunie could name every person in that picture.  I was shocked at how sharp her mind still was.  I always thought it was the natural progression of aging that old people became weak and feeble minded as we used to say, forgetful as we say now.

Then, after one of my multiple, traumatic brain injuries, my neurologist told me there was no reason to be that forgetful.  That if you were less capable, there was a process occurring such as dementia or some other disease might be affecting your mind.  Many consider President Trump, as well as Dr. Neale (El Dorado Springs Dentist and former Cedar County Coroner) and some college professors to still be mentally sharp in their later years.  So, the rest of us don’t have much of an excuse to be forgetting things and blaming it on age.

During one of our talks, my Aunt Eunice told us of another side of getting old.  She lived 33 years after her husband Roy died.  Even though she was the oldest in the Green family of seven children, she had watched every one of her younger brothers and sisters grow up from birth, only to see them die before her, including my dad Leo, the youngest.

At that point, I could only imagine her pain and loneliness from not having her husband and brothers and sisters around anymore.  Especially after having watched all of them being born, living their lives, then passing before her.  Only one sister-in-law, Edna Jo Green, her brother Paul’s widow, remained, and they were separated by almost 200 miles.

Eunice celebrated her 100th birthday at the Eagles, where she had worked for many years. She had also worked at the hospital gift shop and demonstrated her son’s spas on television commercials; constantly filling her life with things to do, mostly helping others.  Eunice fulfilled her dream to celebrate her 100th birthday and even got to dance during the party.  She died a week later, having lived a full life..

I watched a news story the other day showing a woman 102 still working and living her life.  She was a former dancer and even cut a few steps for the camera in her kitchen.  She’s among many centenarians being studied by scientists to see what is responsible for her longevity; DNA, genes, diet, what?  But the scientists are only looking at how many years she is living, not how good the years are.  The nursing homes and assisted living facilities are filled with those whose health is not nearly as good as her’s is.

Many people are absolutely scared to death of dying and are even uneasy to be around a coroner.  Some pretty funny jokes are made about the coroner, but many people are so afraid of dying that they can’t even imagine any humor or joking about it.  One newspaper editor was hesitant to publish my articles, saying that my spelling of the title, ‘Koroner’s Korner’, was too flippant for such a serious subject.  My answer was that much of the fear of the subject of death was due to the unknown and that the more attention I could bring with the unconventional spelling, the better.

When you’re thinking about living to 100, I always say that life (and marriage) is like a roller coaster.  If you want the highs and thrills, you have to take the lows and dips along with them.  You have to hold on tight in the curves and be thankful to God for such a wild ride.

Charlie Kirk was 31 when he was assassinated.  I wondered, how many great moments he had missed out on by being taken so early in life?  How much will his widow and children miss out on?  My son and other’s sons in town didn’t even make it to 30.  We are all left wondering what they would have become and how many moments of happiness and togetherness we all missed out on.

My personal thoughts now aren’t so much that I want to live to be 100.  I now thank God for every day and never have any doubts that every morning I wake up, it could be my last sunrise I see or that every motorcycle ride I take, could be my last.

Am I being morbid?  No, I’m celebrating what a great life I’ve had and of course, all of us are looking to live as long as possible.  You don’t have to ‘stop and smell the flowers’, but you should at least slow down and smell them.  Because a long life doesn’t guarantee a long and happy life so the point is, be as happy every day as you can be.  Remember, it’s not the numbers on your gravestone, it’s the ‘dash’ in between that counts. Live every day to its fullest and when you think you’ve packed in a full day, be thankful to God and pack in some more; you’ll sleep better that night and be even more thankful to God for all the blessings He’s given you.

Danny Leo Green

Cedar County Coroner