The cancer. It runs in the family. Alzheimer's, too, now that I think of it.

I've got a lot of fun to look forward to.

Just after uttering the phrase "It never did that before...."

Okay, I have known heart issues so I've come to accept #1 & #2... I'm a good, seatbelted driver, so I worry more about the pain of injury and loss of car caused by #3. As for #4, I am now comfortably alone and only worry about being unable to dial 911 and as a result die slowly and painfully instead of getting proper care. I have to remind myself to take my prescribed meds, so the only variation of #5 that could affect me would be if eating a large amount of chocolate could be fatal (and if it were, I and millions of others would already be dead). And for #6, I'm really unconcerned about what I leave behind - can't take it with you, but I would regret the news of my death not getting to the MetaCommunity so you can all have a good cry or a stiff drink on my behalf.

I do fear pain, so death by Cancer is high on my 'don't want' list. Had a colon cancer scare once that turned out to be hemmorrhoids; both parents quit smoking before I was 6 years old because I was getting athsma (for which I thank them so much); and 35 years of driving with my elbow out of the window has left me with an ugly left arm and worries about skin cancer.

And I once went through a brief period of suicidal thoughts during which I researched various methods and was repulsed by the pain, difficulty or unreliability (and after-affects if unsuccessful) of most of them. So I do not fear death per se. But I still refuse to get into a fight with Chuck Norris.

Freak can opener accident. or killed by a falling piano. (I always wanted to die like a cartoon).

High cholesterol runs on one side of the family; Alzheimer's on the other. If I don't kill myself in an airplane first, it'll be one of those.

I'm a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker, so it should be lung cancer or cirrhosis that gets me, but the world is a cruel and ironic place so I'll probably end up living until I'm 90 and die of old age.

But then again, I don't really care how I go as long as my family follows my wishes for my corpse to be encased in plastic and deified.

Carbon monoxide poisoning from a tabletop charcoal grill in a tent.

I once thought it would be by my own hand. Now I think it will either be something dramatic (swept away in a flood) or farcical (swept away in a flood of marshmallow fluff).

I dreamed my own death once. I was sitting in one of those old-fashioned high-backed wooden wheelchairs, in a rose garden. My chair was on the lawn facing the rose bed, which was in full bloom; it was hot and the air was still. The roses were in May bloom, all colors, hybrid teas and grandifloras and a couple of climbers on an arch. Their smell was thick and heavy and pleasant, and I was drowsing, listening to the bees buzz. My hands were on the armrails and I could see them; they were wrinkled, veiny, very very old.

Suddenly I looked up and knew it was the end; everything closed down and went away. Then I woke up. It was one of the most pleasant, least frightening dreams I have ever had; I hope I should die just like that.

I dreamed my own death once. I was sitting in one of those old-fashioned high-backed wooden wheelchairs, in a rose garden. My chair was on the lawn facing the rose bed, which was in full bloom; it was hot and the air was still. The roses were in May bloom, all colors, hybrid teas and grandifloras and a couple of climbers on an arch. Their smell was thick and heavy and pleasant, and I was drowsing, listening to the bees buzz. My hands were on the armrails and I could see them; they were wrinkled, veiny, very very old.

Suddenly I looked up and knew it was the end; everything closed down and went away. Then I woke up. It was one of the most pleasant, least frightening dreams I have ever had; I hope I should die just like that.

I'm having severe deja vu: ikkyu, was there some other "how do you think you'll die thread" in which you posted your comment twice?

I don't think I can answer this.

I drink enough to put me in a slightly higher risk group for cancer, but I don't smoke, so maybe that will help. However, not smoking may be offset by my proclivities in the sack (sorry if that's Too Much Info).

I have pretty bad allergies, so if the worst peak oil or societal-collapse scenarios come true, I'll probably be overtaken by an incurable sinus infection after most medicines cease to be available. (Yes, I really do think about ridiculous stuff like this -- no wonder I'm so anxiety-ridden!) Or, along similar lines, perhaps I'll be wiped out with a good chunk of humanity when some terrifying drug-resistant super-bug catches us by surprise.

That's really lovely, ikkyu2, thanks for that.

I don't care how I go, I just hope it's quick. Death doesn't scare me at all, but I don't want to live to be old. I don't want to be disabled and/or suffering for years.

Cancer. It's rampant in my family. You think that'd make me strive to be healthier, but it has the opposite effect. It feels inevitable, so why fight it.

Alone.

My husband thinks the both of us will be martyred in Burma, in our eighties. At that age, the flight OVER there could kill us. ;-)

I don't know my father or his family so I have no idea what fun times await me from his genes. My mother's family is a long-lived, reasonably healthy lot, although genetics look at some fatness (which only manifests in me, because I am the only non-smoker of all the women in our extended family) so there might be a risk of Type 2 diabetes and some heart problems. I run and am a healthy eater though (although I do drink too much for a woman) so I'm hopefully forestalling that.

I fear being resented and disliked in my old age, by my family, like my querulous grandmother.

fade away.

My dad is 65 and overweight. He is shutting down right now, albeit slowly--type II diabetes, and heart disease. He can barely move about and looks grey and fading. The thing is, I think there was an underlying apathy/depression that led him there over the last 15 years, and I think that is the real culprit.

So I'm guessing cancer (via my mom's genes), heart disease (too many animal products) or car accident, as I have avoided death narrowly about four times on the road, and I think my number is coming up. Or maybe while looking at scales on the Kmart website (must not click next link)

Actually: Bum ticker, runs in the family, and I'm not doing enough to fight it.

Preference: I figure at the first sign of not being able to take care of myself, I'll get my hands on some dynamite and...

Ideally: Ironic fulfillment of a gypsy curse.

I just had a lymphoma scare. I made me think about this really hard. I have always been sanguine about my death, but I realized that I am not ready to die any time soon (other than I have an agreement with wife and daughter that we will play scrabble-they hate it-all I want if I ever have a terminal disease).

No cancer in my family. A lot of coronary stuff, including my dad at 45 of his third attack. My cholesterol is really low and I just went on blood pressure medication. I am in fairly OK shape.

So not sure. I imagine heart attack or stroke at some point.

Capn, did you see Inland Empire?!? "Ironic fulfillment of a gypsy curse" seems like a very, very scary way to go.

Heart attack, stroke, heart failure, cancer, pneumonia. Perhaps a car accident. Maybe a ruptured aneurysm.

Falling off a cliff.

Both my parents were drinkers and smokers; both of them had throat cancer. In my father's case he beat it only for the liver to go and that killed him at age 75; my mom is still alive 20 odd years after they told her she probably had 6 months if she was lucky. So, you know, I probably will get throat cancer.

Whatever. I spend hours every week in a retirement community being clued in to all the recent illnesses, injuries and deaths. I would SO much rather go ahead and split this place young than live like that. In fact, my daughter and I joke morbidly that when we leave we both think: Keep smoking - die young. No point in being 80.

On the probability scale? No heart disease ever in my family and so, well, alone? Of course. Penniless? Absolutely. Car accident? That's like an act of the gods and I bow to them in that one. Accidental OD - I've been planning to start developing a healthy heroin habit at age 75, should I magically live that long. Other than that, you can't, AFAIK, OD on pot or beer.

My habits are pretty healthy. I eat a lot of whole grains, fruit, vegetables. I never smoked. I drink more than I should, but it's not a daily habit for me.

The members of my family have managed to live to advanced ages with horrible habits. I have a grandmother, for example, who is now 81. She is quite obese and quit smoking at the age of 79 after a nasty hypertension-induced nosebleed. Her husband, my grandfather, made it to the age of 78 on a diet of scotch and red meat. The only one of my grandparents who didn't live to see his 75th birthday was my maternal grandfather, who smoked and worked in an asbestos-infested shipyard.

(My paternal great-grandmother made it to the age of 94.)

Although I do not have an optimistic disposition, I can't help but feel good about my prospects with a backgound like mine.

I predict that I will live a very long life and -- if they haven't found a cure for it -- probably die of Alzheimer's or a related complication some time in my mid-to-late nineties.

(It's possible that my love for adventure sports could kill me at some point in my middle age. But if I remain poor, that shouldn't be a problem.)

My sister-in-law's eighty-some year old grandfather, while dying of multiple cancers, said that it was as good a way as any to go, excepting perhaps "being shot to death by a 22-year-old jealous husband."

Joking aside, my family history is riddled with cancer and heart disease. My ticker seems pretty good, and I eat well and exercise, so cancer's probably a bit likelier to get me. But who knows.

Hopefully not without a fight.

You know, any of the 7 deadly sins will be a good way to go, frankly. I am thinking. For me, anyway.

While I'd like to be put to sleep by a kindly veterinarian, I would guess either carelessness—maybe I'll be hit by a car, deafly & absent-mindedly crossing the road, not looking where I'm going—or cancer.

Let me die a youngman's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death

Both my father and his mother had heart attacks, but survived. The only thing I know is that my father said it had something to do with not enough folic acid. But do I take extra folic acid? No. My father's mom is still alive at 85.
My mom's parents both had cancer - Grandmom had throat, colon (which killed her), and breast cancer. But she also was an X-ray technician back years ago, when they probably weren't properly protected. She lived to 82, lively and very active until the last two months. She was still able to get around, and she passed peacefully in her favorite chair with her husband and one daughter beside her.
My mom's dad went on to have a girlfriend after the loss of his wife, and lived alone well into his eighties. Then he came to live with one of my aunts, on her property but in his own house. He got lymph node cancer, but lived comfortably, able to get around on his own, until the week before his death at 91 and a half. He passed in his sleep.
So I'm hoping I have a long life like them - very active in old age, lots of friends and places to go and see. If I'm cut short on my life, it will come as a big shock and probably piss me off.

matthewr, this is wonderful and moving. Thanks.

Probably cancer, as that's what most of my family have died of (those that are dead). One grandma died aged 90 from a stroke (probably more to do with being 90 than with coronary disease), the other has recently had a stroke aged 82, so that's more of a worry now than it used to be.

We don't have heart attacks, and I can only think of one relative who died aged under 70 (and this is going back a few generations) so odds are good I'll live for a good long time.

I do fear that my SO will die a long time before me - he's 10 years older, male (obviously) and his mum had a heart attack aged under 60 (still alive and fighting fit, though), and his dad died aged early-60s of cancer.

I will die, age 44, along with nineteen others, including my Secretaries of State, Interior, and Defense, in a massive truck explosion that will hit my motorcade on Constitution Avenue. The bomb will have been set by an opposition party bent on proving my administration's inability to prevent foreign terrorism, but, days after my death, evidence will be discovered that galvanizes public opinion against this opposition and a shocked and disgusted country will erupt in massive peaceful demonstrations, ushering in a golden age of international cooperation and domestic political vitality that will last until the flood. I'll get a statue, and pigeons, and thirty years of standing in the snow and rain, until the temperatures rise and the the water level isolates, then consumes me, and my hollow bronze body becomes home to generations of estuarine eel.

Either that, or the flood will happen sooner than I think, and I'll die at the hands of Coast Guard stormtroopers who, after hailing my unregistered and stolen trawler, becalmed due to a thrown rod in the big diesel, will fire several warning shots which will rouse my first mate and cook from his stupor and he'll fire several rounds from his sidearm, prompting the Coast Guardsmen to rake the deck with submachinegun fire, igniting a fire that will spread to the engine room, causing an explosion that will burn the skin off my face, right shoulder, and right leg from hip to ankle, tear my left arm off, and collapse my left lung. My left leg will be pinned by collapsing machinery, and I'll live howling until the drowning water rescues me from the fire and draws me into green-black peace and the death I once hoped to cheat.

Don't know--I am fat and have a temper, but I've never smoked or had high blood pressure. Dad's parents :my grandmother died of cancer from smoking for over 50 years, her husband died of congestive heart failure. My mother's biological father died fifteen years ago, but they were estranged and I don't remember the cause of his death. Daddy has just had to have heart surgery.

Either cancer (mom's side) and I have already had uterine cancer or heart disease (dad's side) even though my paternal grandmother lived to 89 before dying of a heart attack.

it'll be health related and i'll be 68, if i make it that long.

Of old age, surrounded by fat grandbabies?

I can't even guess.

I take a lot of killing, evidently: I survived my first partner's death from AIDS, a potentially fatal assault from a casual date, and just recently got bounced off the hood of a car.

So I'm hoping I've got six lives left.

I'm thinking suicide, but only as an alternative to something a lot more drawn-out, painful, debilitating and expensive.

I'm diabetic, have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. My diabetes is poorly controlled. 2 out of 3 diabetics die of heart attack/stroke. They live, on average, eight years less than otherwise healthy people.

There is breast cancer in my family. There is heart disease in my family. My mother's side of the family tend to die in their 70s. I have no idea what happens on the sperm donor's side of the family and couldn't care less.

I hope to die like to ikkyu2 does in his dream. It doesn't seem likely.

On my mother's side people live until they're 100. My mom, who has just turned 74, goes to aerobics 2 or 3 times and week. On my dad's side, there is madness, murder, alcoholism, addiction, and early death. So I figure it's a tossup in some ways.

I just don't want to lose my mind, that's all. My son has carte blanche to throw me off a cliff if I become senile.