The elderly woman who lives below us and 'adopted' me and Raphaela, the former opera singer with severe dementia, has been hospitalized for the last two weeks. I have been in contact with her daughter who lives in Tel Aviv, and they asked me for my personal and medical opinion regarding the steps that should be taken once she returns home.
I gently described my own observations and the degradation of her health over the last six months, and suggested that she not live alone anymore. Her family thanked me, and another neighbor who watches over their mother as well, and told me that she speaks of Raphaela often, as if she were her own grandchild.
I do not fear death, but rather traumatic aging. What is the point of breaking records and living "until 120" (as per the classic Jewish blessing) if it entails suffering?
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