There’s only one word to say to the 94 year-old Connecticut woman that recently died of an anthrax infection and that word is “Congratulations.”

Without a doubt, the single most disrespected segment of the American population is the elderly. When we think of the elderly, we’re usually reminded of the misery that our grandmothers had to suffer at hands of the nursing home industry.

When we think of the elderly, we think of people whose minds would not deteriorate if society would let them die when their bodies no longer serve them or when their lifelong love has left before them.

And 94, nobody can make a serious argument that Ms. Lundgren was not already on her way out the door. Indeed, serious arguments can be made that the health-care industry has been profiting from her existence for possibly the last 25 years. We don’t know and the personal facts, but we all have personal stories.

For every second that she was alive in her elderly years, a nickel dropped into the industry coffers. Once she became sick, those seconds started paying dollars.


Like all other industries, health-care depends on production. Their product is existence itself. They make so much money from the extension of life, they don’t give a damn about quality. The quality of life for the elderly is pretty well understood. There is boredom, physical pain, isolation, disrespect and idiotic fear mongering commercials that prey on an old and tired psyche.


Before Ms. Lundgren died, she was not alone and everyone was forced to pay attention and pay their respects. In her final minutes of fame, nobody could find a way to profit from it.


Intentionally or not, she left this world giving a big middle finger to every suit in the health-care industry, every targeted commercial from insurance companies that put fear in her heart and every punk that never acknowledged her accumulated wisdom. That is why she deserves congratulations from all of us.

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