I'm glad my parents died young: It's a confession that will shock, but after seeing friends caring for aged relatives, TESS STIMSON reveals why

My mum was a wise old bird. ‘Our parents either live too long, or die too soon,’ she told me once. ‘We either go when you still need us, or we become a burden. There’s no middle ground.’ In her case, I lost her far too soon.
Her sudden death at only 59 came like a bolt out of the clear blue sky. My father’s death a decade later, aged just 68, only reinforced the sense I’d been cheated. And yet, much as I loved them both, I’m glad they’re dead.
Don’t get me wrong: I adored my parents. I was heartbroken when they died, and there isn’t a day goes past I don’t think of them, often reaching for the phone before remembering there’s no one left to pick up.
But as I watch my friends and contemporaries - the so-called ‘sandwich generation’ - struggle to balance the need of their ageing parents with those of their children, fighting to hold down jobs and marriages, their finances buckling under the strain, I’ve realised there’s a silver lining to being a 42-year-old orphan.

Her mother was 59 when she died in 2001, and her father was 68 when he passed away last year

Read more: Full story culled from dailymail