Would you really want to know????

Faye Lots of things are much nicer though.

I have often wondered how it must feel to be under a death sentence in prison and see your last days ticking away (or years, if you are in the dreadful American system).
I can see why people with young children, or complicated financial affairs, would need to know so that they could organise their lives to make things as easy as possible for their family.
As nobody is dependent on me, I think I would like to go on living every day as though I were going to live forever. Perhaps a diagnosis of terminal illness would make my estranged daughter wish to be reconciled, but I suspect she would simply not believe it. I would hate to think of her being left with regrets for the rest of her life.

absent I agree lots of things are probably much nicer, but if I was on my last legs I would choose chocolate.

Am I the only member who does not like chocolate very much? Or shopping? or Handbags/shoes?
I need a vice - I have never smoked, hardly drink and do not indulge in romantic relationsips, drugs, gambling, over-spending....... Oh, yes, I forgot, I am addicted to Gransnet! And travel.

Nope Greatnan, I am on record as saying that I don't really like chocolate and eat it very rarely. I used to smoke and am now approaching the first anniversary of giving up (1 December) [pats self on the back emoticon]. I hate shopping and don't gamble and am keeping quiet about my vices.

i love chocolate, have hardly any vices now [ boring old soul ] i stopped smoking 5 years ago and if i knew when i was going to die i would start smoking again , just for a few days before i go

I don't think I would matson. I genuinely don't miss it as a rule. When my mother-in-law died recently, I did feel the need to go outside and have a fag while standing in her care home room looking at her little body. So did Mr absent who gave up several years before me after a stroke. We didn't go out and smoke (no cigarettes anyway) but I think it was all to do with a sense of not being able to do anything rather than a craving for nicotine.

However, if I had bullying health care workers around me being self-righteous about smoking (and other habits such as drinking) and I was dying, I might hit a 60-a-day habit instantly. [gin]

Didn't you hear about the man about to be executed who was offered a cigarette and replied 'No, thanks, I am trying to give up'?

absent, did you give up by willpower alone, or use any of the 'aids' recommended?

I would hate it if I thought any of my darling children would be left with regrets , over what they didn"t do .

Guess all Mums would feel the same !

greatnan , eureka... it is Ice Cream for you is it not????? That must be your vice.

Damn, rumbled! Coffee ice cream with some pouring cream on top! Oh, and tea, of course, about ten cups a day.

Coffee ice cream! Yes!!! I don't drink coffee but I love anything coffee flavoured...

Greatnan Good one that!

Well, jo5 do you mean what I think you mean?

Ana I used nicotine patches for about a month. I still have two of them left in my dressing table drawer "just in case" but I don't think I'll need them. Btw I chose December 1 so that I would be well ahead with my resolution before the New Year.

I meant Greatnan's joke was good. (well, it made me laugh!)

About the man about to be executed giving up the fags.

Thanks absent. I've heard patches are effective.

Have thought about this long and hard, and yes, I'd like to know.

Presumably you don't get to find out you will go on the ?th day of ?ember 20?? That would be too much information. But to be told I'd probably go within a certain time frame yes, I'd live with that and find it helpful.

There's things I'd want to do, undo, say, things to experience, write, organise, places to go and so on.

Am I alone in this?

But you can do those things anyway Nanadog without knowing whether you have ten years or ten months left? Any one of us could trip over a bus tomorrow and the length of our telameres isn't going to predict that.

But I'd still want to know absent I know I can do all these things but like most people I'm working my way though them at a leisurely pace. I want to see the Northern Lights, so am organising a visit to some relatives in Orkney at the end if 2013 or early 2014. But it's more than that. I'd like to know if I'm going to still be here when my grandchildren are growing up, getting married, being a greatnan, etc.

Oddly enough I did trip over a bus last week. I've told my GS if he leaves it on the stairs again he's on Big Trouble.

Okay! Let's pretend I knew when my end was nigh. I'd get the family and friends together [including some Gransnetters] and we would sing [out of tune] dance [out of step] eat lovely food - such as an entire giant Mars bar, drink Champagne, and I may indulge in a cigarette or two [for old times sake].

I am not taking any chances - I am doing all the things I want right now!

Good for you soop. If I did all the things I want to now greatnan I'd probably hasten my end ...and get arrested into the bargain.