I Have a Pull Chain in my Head

Here's something philosophical I'd like to hear your thoughts on: I know what your age is, and I know that you've been through this, so tell me what you feel - and more importantly, how you deal with it - when confronted with your parents' mortality. I'm having a hard time with it, to say the least.
 

Lord knows when you posted this, or if you'll ever be back, but I'll take a shot at this. It's pretty fair to say that it's frightening...as in 'scares the shit out of me!' (Sorry mom and dad, I know you hate that swearing thing.) One of them has already survived cancer and the other two heart attacks, so the thought is there. I think what scares me the most is if one or the other were to become debilitated or incapacitated. Alzheimers or a stroke. To have them lingering. To see them lingering and to know that they're aware they're lingering and that there's nothing I or they can do to change that...that would crush me.

As to what I'd do in any event: like anyone else, I'd curse fate and nurse my pain, keep living and working, miss them and cry over my loss and laugh about their stories, and try to be as strong as any human can expect to be.