Telephone conversation with an eighty-two year old cousin.
"Evreryone down here, all they ever talk about is their pains, their doctors, their diets, their diseases. Now I have something to talk about. For years I went to this doctor, maybe forty years, he's almost as old as I am Every time I go into see him, with a sore knee or pains in the chest or whatever, he'd look at it, and he'd say, 'what can you expect at your age? You're lucky to be alive.' I'd go in with a sore throat. He'd say, 'Can you swallow. So what it hurts. You're too old to worry.' If I had a headache, he'd say, 'whatever happens, happens. You're old, enjoy the day.' Finally he retired. He took a job as a dance instructor on a cruise ship. I'm not kidding. He leads exercises or something. So I went to a younger doctor. He listens to me breathe, pokes around a bit, puts me in the hospital, and now I have three stents."
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