[Lonesome in Massachussets]

First law of regression analysis: Correlation is not causation. It may be that people who work into their 80’s only retire when their health deteriorates to the point where they can no longer work.

[SoftwareEngineer]

I would agree with you except for the fact that in a competelely non scientific survey of the people I have known that died following these two events, no serious prevailing health issues were found.

It was almost as if they lost the will to live.

I know it sounds metaphysical, but what if, stress or obligation somehow produces a hormone in our body that keeps our ticker going and we reduce that stress/obligation the hormone stops and our body decides to stop too

[Mr. Silverback]

You had the same idea I did and said it much better.