When your old a decrease in physical activity can be very bad for your overall health.

Many people live into old age being very active for their age, suffer some minor injury that leaves them bedridden simply because of age then their health declines and they die shortly thereafter. Ask anyone who works in a nursing home and they'll have plenty of stories of 90yr old ladies who were walking a mile a day until they fell and then wound up in the nursing home and died there.

Sounds like the person you're replying to's father got hip surgery right after retiring. I wouldn'd be surprised if the recovery was what killed him.

A heart attack ~10 years prior to death, had otherwise been in relatively good health though a little bit overweight.

I agree though and think you're generally correct; his route required a decent bit of walking/stairs and probably kept him in much better shape.

He became ill about 6wk post-op and passed the night before Valentines Day; an ice storm had just come through and the power was out at his house. Was quite sudden & unexpected, he had been doing well, walking & I'd been taking him to some of his follow-ups. He'd even left me a message on my "voicemail" (answering machine, hah) a few hours prior to passing -- jokingly chastising me for calling him the night before in the middle of 'the' IU college basketball game ("How dare you call me in the middle of...!" hah). Sadly, I've lost the recording since then. =)

An autopsy later revealed, from memory, something like 80-90% calcification of vessels within his heart. Is almost 15 years ago now, and probably only really come to grips with his passing in the last 5 years or so -- I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone, and definitely not something you want to go through as a young 'adult'.