Reflecting on mixed blessings of living a long life

as one in his 90th year and a regular reader of the Yorkshire Post, I am pleased with the prominence you have given to the situation of the aged, even if it is very depressing.

In a way, we are all victims of the NHS and our local doctors, who do their best to defy our natural life span by keeping us living longer.

To the young and middle-aged – incidentally with all the offers on TV and Press that seem to be made to the “over-50s” one is entitled to think that old age starts then – to live a long time seems wonderful, but is it?

Even to one in good health, a widower, sociable, loved very much by his children and granddaughters, admittedly living on his capital, I doubt it.

In moments of reflection, I think what use am I to the community? Becoming a liability. In the near future, I am probably going to be a financial burden on the state and my capital wiped out by having to resort to social care. I, like many other people, don’t want that.

Despite the distress it would cause my children, I am beginning to think that the aged should be offered euthanasia and if it were offered to me I would think seriously of accepting it.

Much as I love my family, I do want to leave them something that my wife and I have saved during our lifetime.

I am honestly, of a very cheerful nature.