Cherish Your Loved Ones
They can be gone in a flash and then it’s too late
Don’t take your loved ones for granted, because you never know when they’ll be gone.
My favourite aunt died yesterday. I opened a birthday present from her a few days ago. The thank you letter I wrote for her is still on my desk. I haven’t posted it because I was finishing our Christmas newsletter and had intended to enclose a copy. She always loved our newsletters. I’m sad that she won’t see it this year.
I was supposed to see her at a family get-together in October, but the date coincided with forecasts for a weekend of glorious sunshine. My husband and I were keen to take a last holiday in the sun, so we decided to go away instead.
It didn’t seem like a big deal. We’d see everyone at Christmas, we thought.
Now she’s dead. I regret not seeing her that day. The forecast turned out to be wrong. There wasn’t glorious sunshine that weekend. We enjoyed the break, but I’d never have gone if I knew it was my last chance to see my aunt.
The planned socially-distanced chat in the garden would not have been much, but it would have left me with a sense that our last contact was recent and meaningful, rather than being years since we met inside, or a vague memory of waving through a window during the pandemic.
My aunt was opinionated and strong willed; a bit of a social activist, despite being 85. I thought she’d live well into her 90s. I thought we had bags of time. I was wrong. It turned out she had a heart condition that she hadn’t told me about.
So look out for your loved ones, because you never know how long they’ve got. While I tend to assume there’ll be some sign of deterioration and a warning, that’s not always the case. They can be gone in a flash.
I’m grateful that we had some good times together, some happy memories, and I’m grateful that she spent last Christmas with my mum, despite the lockdown measures… because it was her last Christmas, and it would have been such a shame if she’d spent it alone.
Shout out to Jimmy Misner Jr. who writes thought provoking pieces on Life Lessons.
More from me…
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- Could I Be On The Spectrum?
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- Strange & Surreal: My First Druid Ceremony at Winter Solstice
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