<p>Only Tuesday and it’s already been a tough week. </p>
<p>My 47yo boss in Europe stroked out today (ie - died). He leaves 4 kids. He wasn’t feeling well and left the office before 4pm and didn’t make it home and was declared brain dead at midnight (Europe time). I have a personal email from him at 3:35pm that’s probably one of the last ones he sent. Still can’t believe it.</p>
<p>Another 47yo friend died yesterday of a heart attack. I saw him Saturday and he was full of life.</p>
<p>Goes to show that life is too short to stress the little things.</p>
<p>Yep. Hard to remember to live each day like it’s the last, but I did this weekend find myself vacilating about going to a “thing,” and then I thought, “if you died tomorrow, would you rather have watched a football game or seen your mom and sister.” I got up off the couch and put on my shoes. Had a blast, once I got there.</p>
<p>I’m sorry this is all so in your face, right now. It’s a lot all at once. Hug YOUR kid today. Do something nice for yourself.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is anything worse than the death of a young person, whether 19 or 47.</p>
<p>I do think this is a tough week. On Sunday, my friend and I were hit by a speeding car. While friend’s car totaled, we were able to walk away (well, at least as far as the ambulance). It is such a strange feeling to be OK one moment, then hurt the next.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the worm was on his way back from N.H. with colleagues. I worry he couldn’t have handled an impending accident with such skill as my friend, who has been driving for years.</p>
<p>Lets hope the week fares better for all the rest of the CC community.</p>
<p>We had a friend who was in grad school with DH who died of a stroke at 32. It still bothers so much. There were no indicators whatsoever. She’d been working enormously hard, that was all anyone could come with.</p>
<p>I am an estate planning lawyer, and I routinely hear about parents who unexpectedly lose a child.</p>
<p>Somehow, we all think that such bad things happen to “other” people, not to us.</p>
<p>How many of us would not give a lot to be able to spend even 5 minutes with a dead parent or grandparent, while we may have ignored them a bit when they were alive, because we were busy with our own concerns.</p>
<p>For example, my grandmother lost her entire family in the holocaust. (You know, the one that the President of Iran says never happened). When I was a high school or college student, I was too busy to ask my grandmother about these people. What did they do for a living? What were they like? Or even to ask her what her own grandfather did for a living. Or what was your first feeling when you came to America? I was too busy chasing girls at the time, or playing ball with my friends. I probably didn’t spend even 5 minutes talking to my father about the three years he spent overseas in WW II. He must have had a lot of interesting stories about his time in North Africa, Egypt, India, and Burma. Now, those memories are forever lost.</p>
<p>floridadad, don’t beat yourself up about it- most kids are pretty egocentric- that is just how they are made.
However, we can all take the opportunity to write stories down that we want remembered, stick a note in a loved ones pocket & take time to enjoy being alive.
:)</p>
<p>Just last week a collegue of mine died in his sleep. We graduated from High School the same year (1985) … it’s too young. He leaves behind a wife who is recovering from cancer and two teenage sons, one who is severly autistic. Life is too short and unpredictable.</p>