I don't know the exact date, but by no later than 1965, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Granted, this can happen at any age, but this is a disease that's more
likely to occur as a woman ages. According to the
National Cancer Institute, "Breast cancer rates are highest in people aged 55-64 years." My grandmother would have been right in the middle of that age range.
No one explained to my eight-year-old self what the ramifications were of that disease. I was fascinated by her mastectomy scar, and remember that her left arm (the side of her body where the disease was centered) became swollen and painful. She took time off for surgery and recuperation, and I spent even more time with my great-grandmother. However, it was around this time that my great-grandmother (who was in her 80's) fell and broke her hip, so she had health issues of her own. Despite that, she continued to live independently, in her own house, until just a few months before she died in 1973.