Given the ability of the developed world
to keep its citizens physically healthy
well past the age their strength has its use
this will lead to rising numbers of elderly
living for years with fading memories
of how, and with whom, they were useful.
I can see a time when death notices in newspapers
will diminish, but notices that from a certain date
this or that person is going into a nursing home
to live out what remains of a forgotten life,
recalled briefly in print, will become familiar.
