How would I be?

Warning.
This will not be in the category of cheery or inspirational thoughts. I had another funeral/memorial service today .The person was 65 years old and had lived with MS for about 40 years. So many people remarked about the person's cheerfulness, or independence. I called it "spunk."
And along with that experience, the other day I was visiting with a person whose spouse is in an assisted living - care center; and the person's spouse some times get depressed, angry, just plain hard to be around. That all sounds normal to me in those circumstances and the spouse is very understanding of it. Just how is somebody "supposed to be" when the body causes pain, or doesn't do what it used to do, and we can't be in our own homes, and we grieve the loss of abilities, freedoms, privacies and pleasures? How will I be, when (if) I get there? I dont know.
I plan to be cranky and grouchy now and then.
I warn my family that in order to keep a balanced emotional life I have to be cranky now, or cranky later, so don't make me put it all off for later!

Maybe this is just a ramble (to distract me from a Sunday sermon I need to finish) on the proverb or cliche about putting yourself in somebody else's shoes - try them on now, because you might be walking in them later?
Maybe that's some of what Paul was getting around to in his Romans 12:15 words about "rejoice with those who rejoice and suffer or weep with those who suffer/weep. " It gets you trying on, what others feel.

I know some people who seemed to cope well with circumstances that I cant imagine myself coping with.
Is this one of those things where "you don't know until you get there."
Does how I cope with anything now, suggest, give clues, of how I might be in such a condition?
How would you be?
Trust me, I'm not looking for blog comments on this one!