70-Plus Equals Death By Old Age

I recently read that Bernard Hill, the English guy who played Theoden in the Return of the King chapter of Lord of the Rings, died at age 79.

The obit did not offer any reason for his death.

Nor did most of the other obits I read about Hill’s passing. Only one just said “no cause of death is known at this time.”

See, this kind of thing really bugs me.

I see it over and over again: People who die after age 69 frequently do not have any mention of the cause of their death in the obit.

Why? Because it seems to me that if you live past 69, you’re perceived as one step away from the grave. In other words, you’re just old and a prime candidate for the Grim Reaper.

Well, OK, that’s mostly true, but…

Having slipped past the Magic Age of 70 myself, I have a personal interest in how people around my age are dying.

I mean, people DO live past 70. Many people. -- even presidents. Some even live past 100. Although I admit: When I hear of someone 100 or more croaking, I kind of don’t need to know their cause of death.

(I’m going to guess: Old Age?)

But I myself may have another decade or so to look forward to, and I’d like to understand what’s taking down my fellow Golden Agers.

Maybe it’s a matter of privacy. More and more, people value their privacy (although you wouldn’t know it by what they post on social media).

But older people in general (non-Tik Tokkers) tend to still value their privacy, and perhaps that explains why many obits for those folks often omit the cause of death.

Still, I DO believe that many of the obits that are published on the Internet or even in the local paper tend to not include a death cause if the person is 70 or older.

To me, that’s some kind of age discrimination.

To automatically assume that someone over the age of 70 simply passed on due to running out their biological clock is a bit offensive.

People in general are living longer than they ever have before, and even at my advanced age I still feel pretty good (knock on wood).

So listen, obit writers: Don’t just assume that someone who dies past age 69 simply died of Old Age.

Do some extra research. At least TRY to contact the deceased’s family and ask what happened.

Maybe it WAS Old Age, whatever that means. But a little more insight to the cause of a person's death would make the end of that life more respectful and complete.

At least to me.