I retired a few years ago and I’m now eligible for Medicare, Social Security and all those wonderful senior’s discounts. I’m in good health, thankfully, and my mind is sharp. Eighty still feels a long way off. So maybe I don’t quite fit the target audience for this book … yet. But the title – All Remaining Passengers: Essays from the Edge of Eighty – is so brilliant I just had to read it.

All Remaining Passengers is a compilation of around fifty posts from author Philip Slayton’s Substack called The Endgame. They’re reflections on getting old, friendship, grief, nostalgia, and other topics. Most are only a couple of pages long.

Philip Slayton is a former Rhodes Scholar, corporate lawyer, law professor and dean. Since retiring from legal practice, he has published nine books including this one. He splits his time between Toronto and Nova Scotia.

All Remaining Passengers:
Essays from the Edge of Eighty
By Philip Slayton
Oblonsky Editions, Toronto, 2025

Despite my relative youth, several of the themes that emerge from this collection resonated with me. One of those is the idea that the balance of risk/reward trade offs shifts as you get older. Should I buy a new car, or will the one I’ve got “see me through?” Should I take that overseas trip, or just stay home “sustained by claret and Netflix?” With less energy, less resilience and just less time, the calculus between doing or not doing becomes more complicated. Slayton recommends tilting the balance in favor of adventure, but cautiously. So book that trip, but buy cancellation insurance.

While trade offs become more complicated, possibilities are also reduced. Wishes become smaller as you age, Slayton says, and the realm of possibility shrinks, partly because the time available for them to come true has diminished too.

“It’s depressing but undeniable that doors swing shut as time goes by. Possibilities erode and dreams disappear. You are left, not with hope, but with history.” [p. 104]

Inevitably, health and medical issues become an increasing preoccupation as you age. Slayton talks about how powerless you are as a patient. You offer obedience to your doctors for a chance at a longer life. A friend tells him the best medical advice he ever received: “hold on to the bannister.”

As you get older you naturally get lonelier, Slayton explains. People you know and love die, you’re no longer in the workplace surrounded by other people, going out is taxing, etc. This kind of loneliness is existential. It can’t be fixed,, Slayton says, only embraced.

One benefit of aging, Slayton claims, is that you feel freer to express your essential nature, even though this is often interpreted by others as grumpiness.

I enjoyed Slayton’s writing. It’s light and conversational, despite the serious subject, with occasional delightful turns of phrase.

Much of the book is set in Toronto, which is where I grew up. It brought back nice memories reading about some familiar places.

You might think a book of reflections on a long life would be sad and melancholy throughout. There is some of that in All Remaining Passengers, but overall the book is about accepting and even embracing old age despite its limitations.

Thanks for reading.