Yesterday I went with my mom to the hospital as she had to show her regular doctor the results of a test she had done, on his recommendation, at another bigger hospital. Since the visit was routine and he already knew that everything was positive & normal, she just needed to go there for a few minutes and show him the result and come  back. However due to the doctor being held up elsewhere we had a 2 hour wait before she could see him. While waiting I was observing other patients and standers-by at the waiting lounge of the OP section of that hospital.

I saw a couple of older people who were struggling to walk and get up from their seats even. One older gentleman, probably in his 70s, who seemed to have a back problem had come in all alone and just as he was leaving I could hear him on his phone telling someone that he was “done” and was on his way to meet them. A couple of ladies in their late 60s (like my mom) were helping each other get to a seat after speaking at the reception and looked like they could use some help. I got up to help them but they had already found a seat. I gave up my seat to another even more elderly woman as it would have bee easier for her to sit there rather than go all the way to the other side of the lounge where there were a few empty seats.

I hope someday that we develop medical science to such a degree, that even if we can’t stop aging or death, can atleast make us healthy enough to be fully independent to walk around and be active until the day we die. A lot of people stay relatively healthy even into their 80s but a lot don’t. I see a lot of people in their 60s and 70s struggling to cross the street, climb a stairway, get to places – I wish that could be wiped out. I have enough trust in the medical advances – see what it has done for us so far – that we will eventually get there. Not anytime now but perhaps in a few decades or so. That should be a huge focus for us as a race.