I've been hearing and reading that the current flu epidemic is especially hard on the elderly, and I wonder if that includes me. How old is elderly?
I Googled that very question and found many different answers, but 65 was the minimum age anybody proffered. One person said that elderly meant over 90, because "that's older than most people." Well, okay, but since the median age in the United States is 35, if you're 40, you're older than most people.
Elderly must, of course, be relative, especially to one's own age. My sister-in-law recently told me about the death of an acquaintance, adding that he was "only 69." That might be considered a ripe old age by some, but apparently not by someone who is just a couple years shy of 69 herself.
In three years, I'll be 69 too, and I'm on Medicare and Social Security and have a pacemaker. But I think of elderly people as frail and feeble with mobility issues, wrinkly faces, liver spots, and hearing loss, so I would never count myself in with that lot. But if it's true that you're as old as you feel, I admit that some mornings I am really freakin' elderly.
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