Come And Walk With Me This Lovely Road To Death
Man! When the time is right, the time is really right…to write! I’ve been meaning to sit down and address this blog topic for at least a week, but I have two other hot writing projects going on; and anyway, this is the one topic that everyone puts off, even though they know they should write it – yesterday
Write what?, you ask. My Own End of Life Instructions. That’s what!
So, I revved up my computer this morning to get started. Actually first, I wrote out my whole blog post in my journal this morning and then logged on. Voila! Right there on AOL was a statistical test you can take to find out when you are going to die. Cool! This is the day to deal with this, all right!
Next, I checked my email and learned that a dear high school friend, Sue Willis, had died three days ago, on Thursday. We all expected it. She was in renal failure and had been in intensive care for about a month, but this was the first we knew that it had happened because another classmate was just getting out the word. Sue was synonymous with our Winter Haven (Florida) High School Class of ’55. She had been the organizer and Information Central on our very-tight graduating class over all these fifty-four years and she had pulled together some real doozy, weekend reunions, as well as monthly luncheons at a hometown restaurant for anyone so inclined. So, losing Sue is a real blow and none of us will sufficiently recover until that not-so-far-off Reunion In The Sky, in the Great Bye And Bye; which, I guess, Sue will have ready to roll when the last class member finally kicks the bucket. But, you know what? I hope that we can do a practice run at her funeral, or memorial service, which won’t be immediately, as her only kin is now traveling. This gives us all some time to plan to gather for it. Yeah, guys! What do you say? Lets let her host one more get-together while we’re all still on Earth.
Oh, and here’s an interesting factoid: By now, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I’m psychically and telepathically-inclined. Well, I had just had a conversation with Sue, Innerly, and looked it up in my journal. It had taken place in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. We talked a little about whether she was “ready to go.” No, not yet, she reported. She was still having too much fun hooked up to all those machines. A day later, she took her leave of the whole kit and kaboodle! Good on ‘ya, Sue!
But now, back to my own instructions here. As Sue can attest, time is shorter than we all think. My intentions were jogged by last Sunday’s St. Pete Times coverage of “At Life’s End.” And all week, I’ve messed around, meaning to take care of two birds with one stone – get a good blog out of it, and make sure my kids have an updated copy of my wishes. But, this is probably the most-procrastinated duty in everybody’s life…even mine. I, a person who really anticipates the grand new adventure of a trip into the Next World.
But, once out of the bag, this cat is going to have LOTS to say, so sign up for my RSS feed right now. You won’t be sorry. And I promise to write much more frequently than I have been doing.
I had written an instruction letter about all this, exactly five years ago this month, and it took a little scrambing around to find it. Another reason for re-visiting this topic. If I can’t find it, in my right mind and good health, how do I expect my relatives to do so, under frantic circumstances??? I’m so healthy today, that I’m sitting around in bare feet and bermuda shorts on this gorgeous Labor Day Sunday, eleven days before my 72nd birthday. But, it’s never too early to start planning your own funeral. So let us begin.
I will end this introductory salvo with a quote from the blog about the subject, which I wrote this morning, much of which I’ve already said in a different form above. But this still works:
“So folks, this putting off these final instructions until tomorrow isn’t always a matter of not being able to face death. Your mother, or dad, or next of kin…or yourself, may not be unwilling to talk about the subject. In fact, like me, they might be quite garrolous and opinionated, but still, it never gets written down. So, let’s take a moment now, and bow our heads, and promise ourselves that we will come off of our Immortality Kick long enough to do justice to that little bit of the most important writing that you may ever do: Your Final Instructions!
Take a load off! Sit down! Say it out! And, save yourself (and others) some grief down the road apiece!”
Tags: , 1, Death Planning, Final Instructions, Sue Willis, Winter Haven High School Class of '55, Tag Index
lindajbrown