a life well lived

i returned today from a conference with my new job, and sadly had to attend the funeral of a dear friend of my parents.

the theme that was iterated throughout was "a life well lived" and from all the tributes presented by family and friends, he had indeed lived a great life.

it was a hard funeral to attend, for this man i really didn't know so very well. my parents have been friends with the couple for many years - i babysat their children in my teen years, their family and ours were often together through my adolescent and teen years, but since then i could probably count the number of times i've seen them since i've been married on two hands.

they and my parents had travelled to china, and most recently croatia, as well as attending many functions, dinner theatres and other events together.

i think the hardest part today was realizing that my parents are coming into that "aging" population - that they are no longer young, and that this is the beginning of losing their friends to age and/or illness. it was so sad for me to see the grief on their children's faces, knowing that some day that will be mine. and their children are not much younger than i am.

this was not an unexpected sudden death, but the timeframe for his death was very short. only 5 weeks ago he was on the beach in hawaii, and as was retold to my mom, he said to the gentleman he was with, that he felt better than he had in a long time.

2 weeks later he was given only a few weeks to live.

maybe that was because he was given a short reprieve before the suffering he went through. cancer acted swiftly in his case, and sadly there was no miracle that he could have found to save his life.

life is short.

call your mom and dad and tell them you love them. i did.