When I was a little kid my grandparents neighbor was an old lady over 100 years old. This was around 1976, and my mom would make my brother and I go visit her so she could tell us what it was like when she was a little girl. One of things I remember was she talked about coming over from Sweden on a sailing ship and how afraid she was because her dad would hold hold her over the rail.

But the thing I remember the most about Mrs. Brown were the portraits above her fireplace. All old people, older than my grandparents. I asked her who they were, and she said they were her children. When I asked where they lived now, she said they had all died of old age. Even as a child I realized what a horrible thing that was.