There is this. Dying is the only thing that every single human being who ever lived has managed to pull off successfully, no matter how stupid or incompetent they were otherwise. I’m a klutz, but I’d be amazed if I’ll be the first one to somehow get it wrong. Although, considering my history, you never know…
On the other hand, I don’t really trust anyone who doesn’t fear death on some level, or rather, anyone who doesn’t at least think about it.
The biggest regret I’ll have is not knowing how it all turns out, but it’s a huge regret.
The concept of not existing anymore worries me, I sometimes try to imagine what utter oblivion would be like, and I know intellectually it’ll be like… nothing. But not even being able to be aware of nothing is kinda freaky.
You go, girl! You’ve been married pretty near as long as I’ve been alive.
I sometimes think about the fact that one day I will go away like a blown-out candle flame. I don’t relish the fact. I accept it but I don’t like it, mainly because the time that I’ve had with SWMBO just hasn’t been long enough. And I will think that as my dying thought.
I am 61. My husband died very suddenly, quickly and unexpectedly 6 months ago – in the bed beside me on my birthday, after a lovely dinner out. We met when I was 18 and he was almost 21, and were married for nearly 39 years. It was a devastating loss for all of us left behind…but for him? Who knows? He was here, and then he just simply was not here. I miss him every single minute of every single day.
But am I afraid to die? Not really. I am not religious in any way, but I now believe that there is a somewhere past here. It is comforting to know that life goes on when we are gone, even when we leave very sad folks behind.
Reading this made me feel more upbeat, I am currently 33 and am on maternity leave, but like the original author every few days or so I feel time is slipping away more quickly, my child who is 9 months is growing so fast and I think I must usually be a control freak and this is the problem.
I work in a care home and am comfortable with the cycle of life of living and dying …unless its my own…but your words made me realise all the things I think I want to do and might not get to do may be completely outshone by things and opportunities I will experience that I may not yet have even dreamed off…I need to start to focus on how I can make each day I’m living fun and enjoyable, thank you for your story:-)
This. And just think of all the wondrous things that you can’t even imagine that your child will get to experience in their life.
Today we have the Internet. Such a marvelous thing. This great sharing of knowledge. I remember showing my grandma Wikipedia the first time and how amazed she was. We spent a couple of hours looking up stuff she was interested in.
She has sewn her whole life since she was a child and was taught by her mom. I showed her sewing tutorials on YouTube and it blew her mind that 1. people still sewed their own clothes and 2. that the tutorials even existed and that anyone could learn.
What spectacular things will exist in the future for us and your child to experience.
My take on the whole death thing is that life is an amusement park and death is the admission price. I’d say we got the better end of the deal.
I am 67 and just starting to deal with some of the end of life as I know it issues. A disproporionately large aspect of my identitiy is invested into a single pursuit type passion of mine. Limited income, and physical changes are forceing me to rethink the roll I will continue to play in my passion. I am presently attemting to reinvent myself into a roll that an older gentleman could maintain well into old age. Writing, my new pasion! No way am I just giving up.
But I worry much much more and much more often about things that could happen in the process of dying, or even much before that: Long-term and severe disease, injury, pain, debility.
If I’m ever significantly debilitated and/or in severe irreversible pain or discomfort due to age, disease, injury, stroke, etc., someone please just pull the plug! My biggest fear is that I might end up like that, and nobody will just pull the plug.
That’s kind of what I came to post. By the time I’m really old, maybe 100 or so. I’ll be so tired, and over everything, death will just seem like a nice, welcome rest.
I didn’t realize this a zombie until I read my own post from two years ago. Nothing much changed, still trying to decide if my wife and I am should just mover to be near one of our kids.
I just realized that at 78 and 9 months (to the day), I have lived about a haf year longer than my mother did (and about 15 years longer than my father). Several friends have kicked off and one more seems in bad shape (no diagnosis, but she weighs under 80 lb and suffers from constant nausea). But I will just soldier on with capabilities diminishing ever so slowly.