Growing Old & Sick

We all grow old. From the time that we enter this world bawling and kicking, we are already growing older by the moments that go by.

It may seem a long time, from cradle to childhood through adolescence to adulthood and on to old age. Some have a long journey in between, making it to the celebrated milestones of 70, 80, 90 and a marvellous 100 years of age.

If you have good health all the way, then life is worth celebrating. If you are dogged by illness and bitter experiences, short-changed in many ways, then you might think about the hand that life has handed you. In general most people lead an average life, i.e. they have gone through the experiences of the various stages of life, enjoy fairly good health although the symptoms of old age have crept in slowly. Nevertheless they are still mobile and able to make the best of things.

I have been saddened by news of friends battling cancer; their courage and persistence in battling this scourge of modern times is to be lauded. If one has never been in a situation where one has been in contact with cancer warriors, one will never know the courage and the hell they go through.

I lost my parents and two sisters to this insidious disease. Their sufferings can never be told in words but their courage in facing the enemy is exemplary. They were truly warriors and their faith in the Lord was strong. Sometimes I can't help wondering why this had to be their end, why their productive lives had to end in such a way.

Is it because the cancer cells that exist in our bodies had been triggered into wild proliferation by something in the environment, by the food ingested, by the air breathed in?

We have abused Mother Nature to such an extent that we are victims of our own doing. More and more young people have succumbed to this disease. It attacks the various parts of our anatomy and the sense of helplessness that we feel in its presence is overwhelming.

Treatment is another battle all the way. The drugs currently in use debilitate the body and could be causing more harm in the long run. The disease simply whittles away the body even as it runs amok within the system.

When will we be able to conquer the ills faced by mankind?

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