RIP Ben
June 14th, 2007 - 11:40 pm
This morning I was informed that someone I knew quite well during my formative early adult years died a few days ago. He wasn’t old either, and that has had me reflecting all day on how many of my friends have passed on already. The number is too high. They are dying too young. While a few of the deaths have been the result of accidents, unfortunate diseases like AIDS, and in one case murder, the majority of them have died of things one would expect to see a much older person succumb to … not someone in their thirties or forties (or even fifties).
Lin: Don’t you wake up every day just hoping you’ll survive the day?
Orb: Yes, I do. I want my obituary to be the last one of my group of friends. I want to live a long life.
But why? Why want to live to be a hundred? So I can watch all my friends die first? I expected to go through that when I was older, to see my friends give in to old age one by one and myself falling also at some point. What I didn’t expect was that from the age of 20 to the present I would be seeing one of my friends die every two or so years. By the time we are old, there won’t be anyone left to watch die of old age if this keeps up, and that’s really sad, because that’s not the way the circle of life is supposed to work. People should live beyond their forties. We’re supposed to grow old together and laugh about the good old days, but these are the good old days, and so many won’t be around to laugh about them.
I took this news harder than I thought I would at first, but once it sunk in, I realized I was really, really sad about his death. Then I was reminded of how many of my friends are already gone, so now I am just plain old depressed. Too young, you know? Too many of my friends are going far too young.
2 Responses to “RIP Ben”
I’m sorry to hear about your friends that have passed so young and yes we should all live as long as we want to. I myself have a family history of males on both sides of my family dying way too young. My dad passed away at age fifty. I have managed to surpass the normal life expectancy of family males by almost ten years.
Back during 1967 my best friend, who lived right across the street, got drafted for the Army. He came over, showed me his notice, and was extremely upset. He was afraid he would be killed in Vietnam.
To calm his nerves and make him feel better about it all I told him I would go with him and I enlisted the very next day. Twenty two days in Vietnam and he was killed in action at age eighteen. You can’t imagine the feelings I still have.
My sympathies for your loss.
A few years ago I had a patient who was 100 years old, she was a mean old lady. At first she gave everybody a hard time, but after a few days she warmed up to me. I got to know her quite well, she told me she was upset because all of her friends and family members had passed away and left her behind. She even outlived her children. She’d yell at the other staff members but she’d wink her eye at me. She was so cute.
I wouldn’t want to live to 100.