Do you know someone who should be dead but just keeps on ticking?

A couple of months ago I would have said yes. But she finally let go, after living for a year unable to move or hear. She couldn’t move due to a stroke, and her body kind of froze in one position. When people tried to move her she would moan in pain. Even so, she lingered and lingered. When she was in hospice, we were told she would die in a week or two. It was two months later that she actually passed away.

I don’t know why she kept on staying alive when life was so painful. Perhaps she was really afraid of death. She’d been depressed for years by that time, and depressed people usually want to die. She said she wanted to die, and yet she held on longer than most. Hard to explain.

Wow. No…wait. Yes. I won’t talk about him here however. When I get the news, I will not be surprised but that it took as long as it did.

The way you have chosen to phrase this question bothers me tremendously.

I know someone who has lived past their life expectancy if that’s more along the lines you meant. My history teacher in high school (who is now an administrator) was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was young. The doctors didn’t expect him to live far into his childhood. He now has two healthy children to a beautiful wife and is well into his thirties. He has been in and out of hospital due to his condition. We almost lost him several times. The man won’t be knocked down by anything. He’s kind of my hero.

I agree with @muppetish , I think there could have been a more tactful way to ask the question.

I did know a person that seemed to linger much longer than anyone expected. She hung on by a thread for several years. She has since passed on, though, and I am very happy that her suffering is over.

Sorry, I don’t think I explained myself properly above but it’s too late to edit.

I’m talking about people who have such a flagrant disregard for life that they disregard all common wisdom and purposely engage in lifestyles (smoking, drinking, drugs) that should, logically, shorten their life.

@ftp901 . . . me?

yes, exactly, keith richards is a good example. How does he keep ticking?

@ftp901 . . . He has naturally embalmed himself.

Confused kids? I edited my answer above ^.

Dick Cheney.

I’ve suspected for years that Keith Richards is an alien of some sort..

@Trillian . . . Keith Richards has “Mr. Burns Syndrome”. All of his ills balance each other out, therefore leaving him very sick and yet very much alive.

Dick Clark

Well, genetics plays a big part in it, I would imagine, as to why some people’s bodies can take the kind of self-abuse that put others who engage in the same activities in heir graves years earlier.

@talljasperman . . . God tried to take him out and Dick said, “Next time bring kryptonite.”

i think he was just talking out of the side of his mouth.

Zombies. Thats about it

I did, but their clocks finally ran down.

@wundayatta sounds like sick of living scared of dying syndrome—she needed to listen to ole man river.

Andy Rooney.

I should be after the events of the last two weeks. Know without a doubt time has been taken from me off the back end. Can’t go back and press the delete button however.
Perhaps he really is the “deadliest catch” in the literal sense.
I know my system can’t take too much more… if any at this point.

Are you o.k. in there @JessicaisinLove? That comment seems a little scattered or off track or something. Anyway, just wondering. Care to check in? Maybe just right answer, wrong question. I do that sometimes.

Pat Robertson

Courtney Love?

Betty White.

(This should get me some hate sent my way.)

@Akua wishes don’t count. ;-)

@Trillian oohh your bad.

Yeah, there is over 6 billion of those someones…