She still loved life and was physically able bodied. I can understand someone making a pact with themselves to go on a certain day, but she was alive and had Harold as a friend and someone she could mentor? You would think she would have delayed it by a year or two.
shareBecause she knew that at some point after age 80 life was likely to stop being fun, that she would lose the capacity to do what she wanted or to fully enjoy the things she lived.
But I don't think that was the whole reason, IMHO she thought of death as a last adventure, the greatest leap into the unknown or reunion with lost loved ones or something. She didn't fear death, she loved it in a way I can't articulate with the amount of sleep I've had.
I think she probably had decided that long before Harold had come along and stuck to her word, so to speak. She was a very lively and energetic person so she probably wanted to go out as she was. She also seemed to be alone family wise, so who would be there to take care of her? She certainly wouldn't want to put that burden on Harold, especially since she loved him back.
share
Agree with all the prior posts
I'd also add that 80's just a nice, round number, one she chose mostly arbitrarily but ... SHE chose it. It wasn't a choice made for her by fate, or at Auschwitz, or by old age. It was her ultimate expression of power over her own destiny.