Are You Doing Everything You Can To Avoid Being Sick When You Get Older?

"I wish it could all go to HELL!"

My dad was sick. very sick. Several years ago, he had been diagnosed with cancer.

We had left yet another doctor's appointment and I was taking him home.

While driving on a winding country road, we passed a large tobacco field.

My father looked out the passenger window and screamed, "I wish it could all go to HELL!"

Dad had been a smoker. He had quit well over twenty years ago. But the damage had been done.

He now had difficulty breathing and had been on oxygen for eight years.

He always had a tube in his nose, which was connected to a breathing machine.

There were also green oxygen tanks in the house, in case the power went out.

No longer able to work, my father struggled to do the things we take for granted, such as get out of a chair or go to the bathroom.

What hurt him the most was not being able to play with his grandchildren.

Eventually, he could not walk up the stairs to his bedroom. So he started sleeping downstairs in the den on the couch.

Before too long, they replaced that couch with a hospital bed. A Hospice nurse was there now too.

One day Mom was in the kitchen. All of a sudden, she heard Dad gasping for air.

She ran into the den and saw him staring at the ceiling.

She yelled, "Breathe, Paul! BREATHE!"

The next thing she knew, my dad was gone.

Early that evening, I received a phone call from my mother.

"I guess you know why I'm calling."

"Why?" I replied, though I already knew the answer.

"Your father has passed away."

In high school, my dad was an All-American football player.

He took his health for granted. He never dreamed he would be sick and disabled one day.

Do you think the same way about your health?

What are you doing to avoid being sick when you get older?

Are you doing everything you can to put the odds for good health in your favor?