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Nearing End

As I was pulling into my driveway yesterday, I heard the familiar sirens of ambulances rushing by. I live near two assisted living facilities and these sounds are woven into the fabric of my life. For some reason, I paused to pay attention to the sound that day and thought about how often I heard them and perhaps they were correlated to the number of elderly who were dying. If there were spikes at certain times of the year, I had not noticed but there are phases when the ambulance sirens are heard more frequently. Somewhere else, there the sounds of a crying infant that has just been born - maybe not even that far away as there are a couple of big hospitals nearby. Birth or impending birth is not imbued with an alarming sound like death or the likelihood of death is. Maybe in that sense we arrive with a relative whimper and some of us might make a lot of noise as we depart. 

As I walked into the house, I thought about my grandfather who died in his sleep in his own bed. It was an ordinary day, people got up in the morning to all go about their business. He did not wake up to get his tea as he always did. That was the end. The family gathered around within a day or two, his passing was mourned, a light rain met the funeral procession as they took his body for cremation. He had lived a full life so his death was no shock or surprise. I remember that day like it was yesterday even though it was not an emotionally cataclysmic experience. The way he passed and the way everyone responded - with quiet yet sincere grief made a lasting impression on me. It epitomized what a life well-lived looked like and what kind of end a person might aspire for. 

My grandfather was not an aspiring kind of man. He did what he knew to be his job and duty towards family and believed in making a positive contribution no matter how small for as long as he was able. Over the years, I have used my grandfather's life as a reference and yardstick for how I was performing in mine. While I was not fortunate to have him for long in my life, I was lucky to have observed him for the time he was alive and learn from it to this day.

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