A natural
continuation to my post dated 15 May 2011. My paternal grandfather, my only
grandparent still alive, turns 90 the day after tomorrow. He is my first
ancestor who will have reached such grand old age. After my grandma’s departure
last year, he lives on his own, yet every second day my father or my uncle
visit him to help his run the house, or to make it clear, to run his house.
This teaches the lesson that “old” marriage model in which a woman is solely
responsible for household chores while a man earns a livelihood, leaves a
widower helpless after several decades of being served by his wife.
Fortunately, today’s marriages are geared to sharing mundane duties and men as
a matter of principle are familiar with using washing machine, ironing,
cleaning or cooking.
Compared to
how he managed five years ago, grandpa is naturally mentally and physically
less, yet still moves around on his own, but everything he does, he does very
slowly (dressing up takes him twenty minutes, morning toiletry more than half
an hour). Mentally, he is definitely less bright, yet in simple terms
understand what is going on around. Quite conceivably, in five years I may wish
him well on his 95th birthday, yet mortality statistics look
somewhat downbeat for males in his age.
Revising
the post from 2011, my grandfather denies most of the twelve longevity-conducive
factors I mentioned there. I think he owes his long life to my grandpa who wore
trousers for over sixty six years of their marriage, who was always first to
look after sons and the house. Maybe leading a carefree life should be tacked
on as another driver of longer life length.
And I could
hold back from repeating one of the last sentences: look at young yuppies who
break their backs to make roaring careers and make lots money and ask yourself,
if they'll be able to carry on like this for 40 years. Imagine a man working 60
hours a week for four decades when he retires in his sixties. I was writing it
at the early stage of my career, before university graduation and did not know
whether and when I would end up in such treadmill. As this is the situation in
which I am stuck now (weighing up quitting the New Factory next year if nothing
improves), I am more than sure I will not carry on like this for 40 years as
long working hours and rapid pace of work involve lots of stress, leave little
time and suck out energy, both essential for experiencing pleasures.
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