When you hear older....especially elderly people say......"I'm ready to go", often it is because so many people they know have gone. Like you said, it eventually zaps life from you. I find it QUITE scary because I am only 54 (55 on 15 Jun) and I already know what my Mom meant. Oh, I'm not ready to call it yet but in the last 11 years, I have lost all of my immediate family along with my Step Dad and on top of that, my two best friends. One I had known since I was 5 and he was 3. THAT guy , who passed 10 years ago next month and my Brother who died in May 2011, were my "go to" guys when I REALLY needed someone to talk to. It REALLY sucks when you have voids or holes in your life that cannot be filled. It REALLY wears you down over time and that is not good for health longevity. Even something I REEEALLY enjoy...Going to Gator football games has a huge emptiness with my Brother gone. But we all HAVE to surge forward. It's what we KNOW our passed loved ones would want.
I have also mentioned my Grandfather losing his best two friends just ONE week apart. That was June 1978. He was 69 at the time and his well being was never the same. But...He had already gone through losing his Mom at a VERY young age, my Grandmother in 1952 (age 39) and my Uncle in 1972 (age 27) 1978 simply was too much for him.
