Looking at my great grandparents, pneumonia (after a fall or other injury) or “in my sleep” are the top contenders (with two of each). Heart disease hit one great grandparent and one grandparent, so there’s another contender, and I admit that I’m not model of diet and fitness. I don’t know any blood relative who got cancer.
But I’m seriously clumsy, with virtually no depth perception. I tend to think that a fall or accident will kill me, even if the ultimate killer is something like pneumonia that develops while trying to recuperate. I have a history of mild asthma that favors a breathing complication being the final cause.
That’s a long way away, though, if my lineage is any indicator. All four grandparents are still alive (in their late 70’s and early 80s, mostly). I think the youngest great grandparent to die still made it to 82; the oldest to 101.
I’ve been saying it for at least the last 25 years - pedestrian hit by a bus. Every time I narrowly miss this fate, I think, “That could have been the one.” I know there’s a bus out there with my name on it.
I used to think in a vehicle crash too. I had dreams about it when I lived in Houston. But I like my first answer better, so I’m sticking to it…er…no pun intended
You know how they say if you dream you’re dying (sp?), you will? I’m finally gonna hit the ground after falling out of that airplane. In my dreams. I hope.
In my family, on both sides, people die in their early forties of cancer or heart attack, or else they live well into their 90’s. I’m nearly old enough to say I’m in the second group.
However, I once had an extremely vivid dream, that I was in the process of dying, on a train, crossing India, in a sand storm, aged late 80’s.
I’m not generally superstitious in the “Actually believe it to be true” sense, but I really do believe deep down that this will happen, if I’m honest. I sometimes daydream about what circumstance might convince me to get on that train, knowing the outcome.
Yeah, me too, based on family history and my knowledge of myself. Well, unless I’m hit by a falling piano first.
To be honest, I’ve never imagined going any other way. It might sound bonkers, but I actually worry sometimes that something will happen to me suddenly, and I’ll be cheated out of choosing my own end. It’s about control, and about being able to give a final middle finger to a universe that I’ve never understood and never really felt a part of. Up yours, cosmos, I’m in charge here, at least in a small way. I was never asked whether I wanted to be here in the first place, but at least I get to choose how and when I leave.
