Sometimes I think!

In my lifetime I have seen many people die. JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King, Marcos, the Shah of Iran, Idi Amin, Arafat, Princess Diana, Saddam Hussein, Gadaffi…..all dead before me. These were world leaders and personalities that were larger than life. All dead before me. And I am sure there will be others who now struts the world stage and swaggers through the corridors of power that will die before me. Such is the world.

Today the world is our oyster. Tomorrow, maybe, we  start the process of going from dust to dust. Nothing stops death. Not great wealth, not great power not even complete devotion to a God, any God.

So what does it take for someone to understand that death will eventually come to all of us? A brush with death perhaps? A near death experience? Terminal illness does wonders to ones ability to understand what matters in life!

And what does one do in terms of regrets when one’s life flashes pass by in the last conscious moments of one’s life? In the last conscious moment when you can still think and understand that your life is ebbing away. In the last conscious moments of your life when the time to make peace with yourself lasts but a few seconds – possibly just that second when you understand that your time has come to depart this life.

I have seen people in the last moments of their life when they can only speak with their eyes! You meet their gaze and you will see fear. You will see a plea for help. You will see them saying goodbye. And in some who are at peace with themselves you will see a readiness to accept death. Not many but some are ready for death.

It is in these moments that your vulnerability as a human being becomes obvious. When I am in the presence of coming death my thoughts invariably linger on the goodness of that person in front of me. My last rational conversation with them. And my thoughts are for those closest to  them – their  spouse and children. With my mother my thoughts were for my father more then for me. I know that life without mother would almost be impossible for him. And it was. And even today, many many years after my Father has passed away, my eyes still grow misty with those thoughts. He, amongst us all, missed her most.

The emptiness and heartache of not having those whom you still love never leaves you. And it is these thoughts that draws me closer to my family – my wife, my two children and their family. For that I am grateful. So please those of you that still have your loves with you…go tell them that you love them. Go tell your wife that you are glad that she is with you. That you have no more to ask but her company and her love…….and some conversation would be good too!