Reading Michelle’s post on death (cached here if you can’t read it on her site) got me thinking.
How else on earth could you explain a doctor expressing anger and blame at someone for accidentally dying? And to then vent that anger on his grieving wife? You couldn’t. There was no other explanation but the fear of death, utilizing the Just-world Hypothesis as its conduit.
Fortunately that didn’t happen to me when either parent died. My mother, who died at age 74, reached the point with Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia where she could no longer eat or drink. My father died of a heart attack brought on by severe anemia related to bladder cancer. He was 77.
My mother was fat for most of her life. My father was thin for most of his. Neither died due to a health problem for which fat or thin is a specific risk. My father smoked for decades, which increases bladder cancer risk — but smoking isn’t the only risk factor.
Sometimes it’s not about fat.
A few related links:
Age is the number one risk factor for dying. My folks were born in the early 1930s. According to the US SSA (Figure 2a) my mother’s life expectancy at birth was 60 years — and my father’s was less.
My mother also struggled with diabetes and depression, both of which increase death risk.
Longer-lived parents tend to have longer-lived children. It’s like it’s genetic or something.
Living ~400lbs 
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