The Octogenarian Handbook

No mid-life adult wants to be an Octogenarian. But-if they think of the alternative-they all want one day to become one. As people approach their senior years, that hope strengthens as they realize only 5% to 15% of their life remains-if they're lucky. Peter Schroeder describes how to steer your life towards longevity. He shows there are only five ways to die-no alternatives-and one of these ways has your name on it. Ironically, each of these ways of dying is described by a single word beginning with the letter "A" easy to remember, hard to forget. Now in his mid-80s, the author recounts how as a 39-year-old diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, his doctors gave him only a few years to live. In looking for alternative medical systems, he traveled to an ashram in India where for three years two Ayurvedic healers helped him plan a "serene and beautiful death." But to his doctors' amazement, the disease went into remission. Since then, Schroeder has reclaimed his once-active life for more than four decades.

As he contemplated his end of life, he narrowed the ways of dying down to only five. He gives readers a practical understanding of them and analyzes how people, as they age, might be able to influence their own personal passing.

Written in a light-hearted and somewhat whimsical style, the book is not morbid or morose. Factual and gentle in style, it goes to the heart of this inevitable outcome we all face.