While driving home from running errands today, I found myself thinking about the final few times I got to see my Auntie back in Denmark.
Each time the visit would come to a close and I would be getting ready to leave to come back to the USA, I would say a thorough goodbye to her because I was acutely aware that it might be the last time I would see her.
Perhaps that sounds a bit morbid but as we get up in age, the chance is always there that we might not see a person we only visit sporadically again.
The last time I saw my auntie in Denmark was just before her 93rd birthday. She ended up passing away not long after her 94th birthday.
When I came back to Denmark to attend her memorial service I found myself relatively at peace and content with the situation because I felt like I had said a proper goodbye the last time I saw her... even though it had been 15 months previously.
Of course I'll be the first to admit that I tend to be a sentimental sort of person, and I often find myself looking both backwards and forwards with a certain sense of longing and sadness. Perhaps that is a side effect of the way I grew up where we were constantly moving and I couldn't really form close relationships... therefore in the rare occasions that I do end up with close friendships and relationships I tend to have very strong attachments.
When I was a kid I always used to think it was kind of strange how often older people would talk about death and about people around them dying. I was raised in an environment with a lot of older people — meaning that they were in their 60s and 70s and beyond — so it was perhaps not that unusual for them to have these particular discussions.
The closer you are to something, the more you talk about it.
Now that I have rounded 60 years of age myself, and hear and read about more and more of my peers passing away from one thing or another I have a much better understanding of those discussions about death that I thought were so strange when I was a kid.
I have no fear of death, per se, but I do have a great deal of awareness of it. As such, when I find myself in the company of somebody I only see once a year (or maybe even less) I remain acutely aware of the fact that this may be the last time I see them.
Again, I don't mean this in a morbid sort of sense, I mean it in the sense that it is important to make the most of every moment that we have because none of us really know for sure when our candles might be snuffed out.
And these days?
These days it seems like more and more young people die randomly from one thing or another. When I was a kid I don't remember ever hearing about anybody much below the age of 50 dying from anything other than a tragic car accident.
So remember to appreciate those you're with and care about, and as you age and they age make sure you leave on a positive note and with loving kindness in mind.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!
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Created at 2024.11.16 01:18 PST
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Yeah, aging. Excellent to accumulate and store good memories although not so much to remember them and tell them with great enthusiasm. };)
We no longer subscribe to the local newspaper, but now and then I page through a copy of it at the library. It astonishes me to see how many people my age, and younger, are listed in the obituaries. My dad lived to be 99, so I tend to think I still have 30 years to go, myself. But there's no guarantee. Several of my high school classmate have died, and I ought not make assumptions about my own longevity. And yet I do.