My mother recently died. She was 93 years of age, and she was “ripe and ready.” I believe this with my whole heart, and that helps me accept the fact I’ll never see her again in this lifetime. She expressed to me her readiness more than once. Considering all the circumstances with which she lived these last few years, and especially her final few weeks, I totally get it. Enough is enough. And I believe the end-of-life feels better to…..
Many years ago, I had a young colleague named Danielle. We worked on isolating virus cultures in a laboratory, side-by-side under sterile hoods; and often our conversation meandered to stories of our respective families. Danielle had recently become engaged and was enjoying the preliminaries to her wedding, which was still some months away. Danielle had one sister, and their elderly parents were happily married, healthy and enjoying their respective retirements in the small rural town where she was born. Mostly,…..
If You Knew What if you knew you’d be the last to touch someone? If you were taking tickets, for example, at the theater, tearing them, giving back the ragged stubs, you might take care to touch that palm, brush your fingertips along the life line’s crease. When a man pulls his wheeled suitcase too slowly through the airport, when the car in front of me doesn’t signal, when the clerk at the pharmacy won’t say Thank you, I don’t remember…..