October Novel Prep Challenge

You're also very right on so much of this - and I'm only 45 (until next month).

I don't have parents or grandparents living, neither does my husband. I never had siblings. I feel very "on my own" and in charge of my family's gatherings, which also includes which relatives I interact with and which ones I don't. I'm working on settling old anxieties that have physical responses in my body, I do not care what a lot of people think, and I'm open to new experiences but I'm also not afraid to walk away from something that doesn't fit.

I would not mind living healthily until 75 and dying in my sleep like a step-great-uncle did. But when the majority of your relatives in the last two generations have barely made it to 60, that might be understandable. People talk about living until their 80s or 100s as if that's something pledged to them - and I don't understand. Nothing about life is guaranteed.