Auntie Phyl's last months in the care home were extra pieces. Age is unnecessary. Some of us, like my mother, are fortunate enough to die swiftly and suddenly, in full possession of our faculties and our fate, but more and more of us will be condemned to linger, at the mercy of anxious or indifferent relatives, careless strangers, unwanted medical interventions, increasing debility, incontinence, memory loss. We live too long, but, like the sibyl hanging in her basket in the cave at Cumae, we find it hard to die. . Margaret Drabble
About This Quote

This quote by Virginia Woolf says that while we live too long, we cannot be rushed. It is said that some people just live way too long and some people just die way too early. This quote is also said to be referring to the sibyl hanging in her basket in the cave at Cumae, who was supposedly visited by Apollo. The sibyl had the ability to predict the future and had no hesitation in doing so. However, when she began to experience old age, her predictions began to go awry.

Source: The Pattern In The Carpet: A Personal History With Jigsaws

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