If you’re willing to share, I’d love to know the answers to these three questions:
How old were each of your grandparents when they died (roughly, doesn’t need to be exact)?
How old were each of your parents when they died?
If your grandparents or parents are still alive, how old are they?
If you’re wondering why I care, my boyfriend and I were talking last night about how the longevity in his family is so much better than mine. We were born within a few months of each other, but I lost all four of my grandparents and one parent before his first grandparent died. It just got me wondering about what was “normal.”
My answers:
Two of my grandparents were in their mid-sixties when they died, the other two were in their early nineties.
Maternal grandfather: 78 I think. He smoked non-filtered cigarettes since he was 16, and lung cancer finally got him.
Maternal grandmother: made it to 86 I believe.
Paternal grandparents: both made it to right around 80, give or take a couple years. Neither of them had the healthiest lifestyle, so they probably could have lived more years if they had.
Paternal grandfather was 70. He was a heavy drinker and heavy smoker, and he was badly injured in a car crash when he was in his early 50s. So, extenuating circumstances there.
Paternal grandmother was 89.
Maternal grandfather was in his mid 80s.
Maternal grandmother was in her early 90s.
Both of my parents are still alive. My father is 89, and my mother is 82.
One grandfather died at 60, the other at 70. My maternal grandmother died at 83, my paternal at 97. My father is still alive at 92. My mother was only 56 when she passed but it was from a lifetime of smoking (she started at 14) and taking birth control pills for years. That was the reason I quit smoking 33 years ago.
My wife should still have many years to go. 3 of her 4 grandparents died in their 60’s, all from the effects of smoking, her maternal grandmother lived to 99. Both of her parents are still alive, her father is 91, her mother 89. Her mother’s clock is ticking though, she has advanced Alzheimer’s and is in very poor health.
[* How old were each of your grandparents when they died (roughly, doesn’t need to be exact)?
Grandmother on my mother’s side: 93 (and her father also died at 93); Grandfather on mother’s side: 56
Grandmother on father’s side: 67;
Grandfather on father’s side: 54
How old were each of your parents when they died?
Father: 52; Mother: 79
If your grandparents or parents are still alive, how old are they? N/A
An important thing to note, however. My father died from chronic alcoholism. His father died from infection exacerbated by diabetes, before there were any antibiotics, so longevity as I define it doesn’t really enter into things. If we go back one more generation to my g-grandfather, he died at 83, and his wife at 75.
I’m confused by the mention of birth control pills. I’ve read about some unhealthy side effects about birth control, but nothing severe enough to kill you. Is the combination of smoking and birth control pills exceptionally dangerous?
One set of grandparents died at 100 and 91 (the latter after a risky lung cancer surgery), the other at about 77 (after a botched routine surgery) and 90, so I think I’m pretty lucky.
Some of my great-grandparents lived a pretty long time. My father’s grandfather (for whom I am almost a namesake) lived to 87 in spite of being extremely poor for the last 15 years of his life, living on his civil war pension and whatever handouts he could get from his oldest daughter; his wife lived to at least 80 but they were divorced and estranged so I don’t have details. We know very little about his other grandparents, they were more or less itinerant workers and we have no dates of death. My mother’s grandfather also lived to 87, and his wife lived to 96. My mother’s grandparents on the other side weren’t so long-lived: 69 and 71 (which was quite a respectable old age in those days).
My grandparents were kind of all over the map. My father’s father died young at 40, his mother lived to 70; my mother’s father died of emphysema (thanks, unfiltered Camels) at 74, her mother lived to 88.
My mother died earlier than necessary at 78 (type I diabetes) and my father lived to 87.
My mother started taking them in the late 50’s when they contained excessive amounts of estrogen. She was told to stop taking them in the early 60’s, that is how I ended up with my youngest brother. She started again and continued taking them into her late 40’s when she was diagnosed with cancer the first time. One of her last doctors said that the combination of years of smoking and birth control pills were a contributing cause of her cancers. When she passed she was suffering from uterine, lymph node and lung cancer. Her official cause of death was kidney failure.
Paternal grandfather was 74, maternal grandfather was 67. Paternal grandmother was 91, maternal grandmother was 90. A couple of my great-grandparents (mom’s dad’s dad and mom’s mom’s mom) made it to their late 80s. Most of my maternal grandmother’s siblings lived to their mid-80s to early 90s. Her baby brother is still alive at 88. So I have good longevity genes on that side anyways.
Dad died at 59, mom’s still alive at 73. Dad died from a combination of uncontrolled diabetes and a blood clot after surgery to amputate part of his foot.
I never met my maternal grandparents. I know very little about them. Mom just didn’t talk about them, ever. They both died in their 70s I believe.
Paternal grandfather, never met him either. Died in his 70s also. Paternal grandmother was the only grandparent I did know, and she died a few years short of 90.
Mom died last year, 76. Dad’s still healthy as a horse, pushing 80.
Nobody suffered a long illness. We go along fine and then sometime after 70 we just drop one day. If we go into the hospital for something serious we tend to not come back out.
Paternal grandfather was born in 1880, grandmother born in 1883, were married in 1898. Grandpa died in 1968 at 87 and grandma only a few weeks later in the same month at 84. They had 13 children. Rural northern Arkansas and very minimal heath care.
Maternal granpa died of a stroke at about 67. Hard living, no health care. Probably untreated long term high blood pressure. Maternal grandma got married again and was very active in community and church, the kind of non-stop old lady that never was without something to do. Died at 84, family thought that she may have gotten her meds mixed up or took too many.
My mother died at 84 of heart failure.
Father died at 61. Life long smoker, WWII vet. Went to work in the boiler room of several companies where everything was insulated with asbestos. Later worked in what was called dry grind at a feed plant where the dry componants were mixed and ground. Imagine a room with powdered fish and wheat floating around in the air. His poor lungs never had a chance. COPD.
Paternal grandparents were in their 90s. They died of natural causes. Maternal grandfather died in his early 70s from an aortic aneurysm. Maternal grandmother died in her 80s of natural causes.
Dad died at 83 of prostate cancer. Mom died at 90 of natural causes.
Brother S died at 62 from a life of smoking and drinking. Brother B died at 59 from liver cancer due to his life of smoking and drugs.
I 'm not sure about my paternal grandmother, but my Dad’s father lived into his mid-70s, as did my father. My Mom died in her mid 50s, but if I’m remembering correctly, both of my maternal grandparents lived into their 80s.In fact, I think my mother’s family was all pretty long-lived.
I turned 70 last year, so I figure I’m good for a few more years (despite all the health issues I’ve been having over the past few years).
Scary statistic for me: my mother died at 79, my brother at 78, my sister at 76, and my first cousin at 77. I’m 75. . .gulp. Granted, they all had fairly serious health problems, which I have yet to develop.
My paternal grandparents both died in their 70s. Grandfather from the effects of a lifetime in coal mines, and my Grandmother from general drinking/smoking/hard living. She had lung cancer, I believe.
My maternal grandparents came from very long-lived stock. My grandmother died at 82 from a stroke, but her five siblings all lived into their late nineties, with two living into the 100’s. She had a twin brother who made it to 97. One of my great aunts was still living in her own apartment at 102 and never needed any meds or anything.
My paternal grandfather was a similar story. He died at 86 from Alzheimers, but six of his seven siblings outlived him, with several making into their 90’s and one hitting 100.
My father died at 60 from complications resulting from lifelong alcoholism and coal mining. My mom died a few years ago at 80 from bowel cancer that was misdiagnosed for years by her family doctor, who kept insisting she had gallstones until the cancer became inoperable.
I had two sisters who died in infancy, and my brother who died in November at age 63 from liver failure. I’m the last member of my original family. I didn’t expect that by 59.
Paternal line: grandfather died at 76, grandmother 68.
Maternal line: grandfather died at 69, grandmother 103 (and outlived both my parents).
Parents: father at 71, mother at 56.
Genealogical research into my paternal line going back to 1711 has revealed that none of my direct male ancestors lived past 78, so I’ll be working against genetics if I want to celebrate my eightieth birthday.