Takeo Fukuda's advice on growing old

Shin Bok-ryong

The author is a former emeritus professor of history at Konkuk University. 

Perhaps because of our age, conversations among my friends these days revolve almost entirely around health. At one gathering, my friend Kim Young-jak, a professor emeritus at Kookmin University, told us a story.

While living in Japan, Kim once paid a courtesy visit to former Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, who served from 1976 to 1978.

After exchanging greetings with Fukuda and talking about various matters, the conversation turned to growing old. By then advanced in years, Fukuda said that, based on his own experience, there were three things to guard against in old age: First, do not fall. Second, do not catch a cold. Third, sever your ties.

I was struck that a man who had served as prime minister of a major power did not lapse into abstractions about global trends or the meaning of life, but instead offered advice that was immediate and practical. His counsel to sever ties might, in Korean terms, mean learning to let go of emotional attachments. Yet the image of an elder statesman talking about falls and colds must also have suggested a certain detachment from worldly concerns.

Whenever I meet friends, I always tell them not to fall. When older people fall, they may never fully get back on their feet. It can be like experiencing half of death.

People may die from one illness or another, but death ultimately involves passing through the final ordeal of failing breath, so Fukuda’s warning about colds is understandable. Falls, however, are truly frightening. More troubling still is what often precedes them: osteoporosis.

While studying in the United States, I once read an article about falls and bone density. A grandson serving in the military came home on leave. His grandmother was so delighted that she rushed to embrace him. But because she had osteoporosis, the hug fractured her ribs, and she eventually died.

The point is not merely to spare ourselves suffering. We should avoid falls so that our children will not have to suffer caring for us.

So when you walk down stairs, always hold the handrail. And please, do not try to take off your pants or socks while standing. Such precautions may sound mundane, but in old age the ordinary habits can become matters of survival.