According to the New York Times, the rate of elderly missing persons is on the rise — mostly confused people with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. Furthermore, they are often incredibly difficult to find, according to the article, because they often try to avoid searchers and many of them don’t remember their own names and so they don’t answer to people calling for them. I figure the problem will only get worse, given that the US has an aging population. By the time I am old enough to get it, perhaps they will have come up with a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. But if they have not, if I get diagnosed with the condition I hope I have the courage to shoot myself or, failing that, that my caregivers will have the courage to do it for me.
California leads the nation in international child abductions, and in spite of things like the Hague Convention left-behind parents often have a long, difficult, expensive time getting their kids back. California does, of course, have a large population to begin with, and I looked it up and nearly 30% of Californians are foreign-born. So it’s not surprising they have more of this type of abduction than any other state.
Cleveland has released a report of missing people in their city. Unfortunately it is of limited use to me. There are no photos and it only covers cases from 2006 to the present.
Misty and Hank “Tommy” Croslin’s parents are denying previously published reports that Hank had something to do with Haleigh Cummings‘s disappearance. Misty was Haleigh’s father’s girlfriend, later his wife, now divorced, so Tommy would be her sort-of uncle. There have been unconfirmed stories that Tommy helped abduct Haleigh, or at least knew who had, and Misty connived with him. Of course their parents are saying it isn’t true.
The Charley Project Blog 
It always makes me really sad when I hear about older folks wandering off and getting lost. I work in a nursing home and some of those people would be hard to find cause they look completly normal at first glance so if you saw them walking around in regular street clothes you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. OR they wouldn’t even realize they were lost or needed help.
A home I know of, but not where I work, lost a patient a couple years ago. She wasn’t even real old, early 60s. She just up and went and nobody could find her. It turned out she went in the kitchen and into the big walk in freezer and died of cold. Nobody thought to look there so she wasn’t found til they were getting ready to start fixing supper. I think the family sued the home.
My mother once said to me that if she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, she would attempt to jump the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle while she still had some control of her mind.
But I’ve also heard people say that Alzheimers would be a better way to go than to have a clear mind, but trapped in a body that was damaged very badly. At least with Alzheimers, you wouldn’t know why things were bad.
I guess it is a personal choice. For me, when the quality of life gets below a certain point with no chance of it getting better, I’m outta here.
What is your opinion about assisted suicide? I’m a little unsure myself because due to a person’s mental state, quality of life is debatable and because some people may be pressured by relatives or caregivers to off themselves sooner than they want so they won’t have to care for them.
I think assisted suicide should be a case-by-case thing. It’s not always good and it’s not always bad.
I have a terrible fear of growing old and having my body, or my mind, fall apart on me. I swear I would rather get run over by a Mack truck tomorrow than wind up like my 80-something grandmother is now.
My grandmother worked in a nursing home for years and she said if she got into that state to just shoot her. That being said, she’s still doing okay. She had to retire because her vision isn’t good enough for her to drive, but she still keeps house and reads mysteries and does crossword puzzles and tells the commentators on Fox News what idiots they are.
I think a major problem with modern medicine is that it prolongs old age and it prolongs death. Of course, you cannot say that life-saving or life-prolonging drugs and medical procedures are bad. However, sometimes they go to the extreme and you wind up with cases like Terri Schiavo. It seems more and more old people these days just crumble apart by degrees and take a long, slow, painful route to death. They used to call pneumonia “the old man’s friend” for example, because it was a quick and relatively easy way to go. Now it’s easily treated with antibiotics and old people die of things like Alzheimer’s, a series of strokes, or multiple organ failures.
It isn’t true that Alzheimer patients don’t know that something is wrong. They do, at least they do till they’re almsot totally gone, and it’s a terrible thing to watch.
I’m for assisted suicide as long as the patient is in his right mind or if he isn’t then he should allready have a document he did when he was in his right mind.
I pray that death takes me before Alzheimer’s dose.
I meant to say “does,” not “dose.” Uh-oh! Now I’m getting scared!