Apropos that Commentary piece about aging: Many of us like to think

that if things got really bad & ourselves burdensome, we’d find our

own way out. Very few of us do, though. Never underestimate the

dogged will to go on living — sometimes the only part of the will

that’s left after stroke, Alzheimer’s, etc. have done their filthy

work.

My Dad, in his mid-80s and succumbing to Alzheimers, used to report

that lying in bed at night he heard “beautiful singing” and felt

himself being pulled upward. “I wouldn’t go, though,” he declared

with pride. “I held on firm to the sides of the bed so they couldn’t

lift me.”