[ WP ] Humanity has cured old age . You were a friend of the last person to die of natural causes .

He was so sad and so alone. 
 
 His face was wrinkled. More lines than anyone will ever know again. I watched the passing of a titan. Jared Arthur Shapiro, 1992-2098. The last man to die of old age. 
 
 I was his friend, caretaker, and comforter. You see, I work professionally as a researcher at Dunham University studying old age. In this day and age it's hard to find subjects outside of textbooks, so I found Jared. He was a rebel. A man who recognized immortality for what it was, a nightmare. You see, while we in the world do not wrinkle and our cells do not decay, everything else associated with it does. Alzheimers and dementia still apply. 
 
 I live in a world of amnesiacs. People whose memories have to be preserved on external drives, else they forget how to live. I myself am in need of a drive soon, says my doctor. I forgot who my wife was. Jared was the only one who recognized this hell. 
 
 I say he was alone and sad, but it was a joyful kind of sadness, the kind that you get when you know your life is coming to an end and you gracefully accept it. You know you will be missed, and yet you know that when it comes, You will ride on the wings of an eagle to the light and the love. It is that gorgeous inner peace that will not be known again on this earth. We traded that simple peace for eternal beauty. 
 
 That was the kind of wisdom Jared loved spouting. I knew him for the last 8 years of his life. He was in pretty bad shape when I went to interview him, because no one knew quite how to care for him anymore, it was a forgotten skill. The poor old man was falling apart at the seams. Unable to leave his house, organs starting to fail, no bowel control, Early stages of Alzheimers, He was a wreck. I cleaned him up and helped him through his final years. Because I, in my profession, knew how to care for him, I was his sole caretaker. 
 
 Even as his mind and body failed him, he was happy. Jared took pleasure in the smallest, most unexpectedly beautiful things. Flowers, tiny bites of chocolate, porn videos ( which he though were marvelously funny. I remember we watched nine in a row together, hooting and hollering and throwing popcorn at the CompuScreen I gave him ), being wheeled through his garden, even breathing. He took pleasure in breathing! Nobody else I know in this ultra modern age even bothers considering how breathing is what keeps us alive. How pleasant and blissful to take a deep breath on a cold spring morning. Or how that thrill of catching your breath after running can feel down on a primal level. I am alive! Everyone does it automatically. Not Jared, no. Maybe because it was the end of his life did he consider how important each breath was. 
 
 I came in one morning to find him tired and stressed. He said he needed me there. It was the moment. Each breath Jared took was a gorgeous crystalline structure, it seemed to me, a precious thing. He whispered an amazing, poignant thank you to me for being there at the end of his time. ( My god, could Jared tell a story like no one in this age can. such a brilliant storyteller, such a master of that lost art. The story of the gun he kept in his desk was a favorite of mine. ) 
 
 Following this, he thanks many people, unknown to me. This was the aloneness he emanated. his parents, friends, they had all gone. He was the last rebel. There was no place for him in this world. 
 
 The final, joyful, peaceful breath escaped his slowly smiling lips. 
 
 I called for a MedBot. it was arbitrary. Why had we done this? It was the result of stupid famous people, needing to stay youthful forever. FUCK THEM!!!!! FUCK THEM ALL!!!!!! WHY?! WHY DID WE NEED TO NEVER KNOW DEATH OUTSIDE OF MURDER AND PAIN? WHY CA N'T WE JUST PEACEFULLY MOVE through life^like^we^should? 
 
 I sighed, my rage passing. They medbot moves his still smiling body away. I walked through the door into his garden, the garden he loved to be wheeled through and I helped him tend. I took a deep long breath. Here, far from the city, the air of Jared's country home is loamy and rose scented. I glanced up at the sky and see an eagle flying through the blue into the great shining sun. For reasons intangible, I felt like it was doing this for the last time. 
 
 *Farewell there, buddy* I thought.
