finest of materials. The shay was so well made that, for 100 years, not a piece of it wore out until one day, it all fell apart at one time, leaving the rider sitting in a pile of dust.
• What if we could all live full healthy lives, with nothing wearing out before the other, all systems go, until one day, around 90 years of age, suddenly everything would wear out at the same time? 
• Actually, this is pretty close to what often happens. If not dying prematurely from accident, heart attack, or cancer, most people live to about 80 to 90, (in this part of the country sometimes they live to 100).  And then one day they come into the hospital with pneumonia, the heart fails, they have a stroke, the kidneys quit, and then they die.  It all falls apart at one time.
• There are important lessons here.  Many of these very old and dying people receive in the end of their lives fruitless and inappropriate intensive treatment, aimed at cure and not comfort, which drags them through inordinate suffering, and does not change the inevitable.  In all of this, sometimes people have a piece-meal, gradual, dwindling end.  We need to do better in understanding and accepting when it is time to quit.
• Also, we all need to realize that if we want to make it to 90, especially with the mobility we would like up to that point, we should take care of our bodies when we're young.
• Like the "Wonderful One-Hoss Shay" may you not die prematurely, and then one day, all fall apart at one time.
• Dr. Rick Holm wrote this Prairie Doc Perspective for "On Call®," a weekly program where medical professionals discuss health concerns for the general public.  "On Call®" is produced by the Healing Words Foundation in association with the South Dakota State University Journalism Department. "On Call®" airs Thursdays on South Dakota Public Broadcasting-Television at 7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain. Visit us at OnCallTelevision.com. 
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