My dear mother-in-law, Carol Holliday, died in February at age 101 in nearby Pittsboro Hospice after a brief illness, as she listened to Frank Sinatra. At the hospital, we asked if she recognized the music, “My way. My way. My way,” she whispered.
She embodied the aspirations of a generation of women: belle of the ball, queen of the kitchen and the garden, hostess with the most-est, dowager, and world traveler well into her 90s. In middle age, she worked her way through college to obtain a degree in English history.
She lived with my wife and me for the last eight-and-a-half months of her life. I posted about 11 stories on the experience to my Substack during that period. They are available for $5, along with access to the 800+ archive for one month. You can subscribe here. Better yet, subscribe to the full archive of more than 24 mini-courses, and all new weekly material, for $60 a year.
Here’s my piece on her final week.
Other pieces in the series:
Life With A 100-Year-Old. Week 1. 1930s were recent.
Life With A 100-Year-Old. Week 2. Presidential affair. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
On Manners, Jane Austin, and the Comedy of Keeping Up Appearances. Life with a 100-year-old, week 3.
100-year-old Recalls 1930s Traumas. WWI veterans were attacked by the government.
Ancestor Worship: Very Popular. Especially among the old.
When Your Parent Becomes Your Child. Caring for an elderly loved one.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Alone, sick, and angry in old age. On avoiding isolation.
Broken Long-Term Care System. Dowager mother-in-law’s story touched readers.
92+ Years Apart But Linked Together.
Aging, Choices, and Parental Figures’ Deaths: Will it be on our own terms?
Jim Buie 
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