Mortality

I tend to write about what I am thinking about.  Sometimes it is just a continuation of previous thoughts.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking about something that seems to be taboo – our mortality.
It seems really weird to me that we prepare for heaps based on statistics but not this.  For example (and the stats are made up) say 3/10 will get cancer, 2/10 will have a heart attack so we rightly prepare for that possibility.  We prepare with insurance for the possibility we will get robbed, or a disaster may happen to our home etc.  However we know that 10/10 will meet their demise, yet it is a subject that is seen as “personal” and should not be talked about.  It is strange to me that other “personal” issues can be up front and centre but not our passing.  What is the saying “Two things are inevitable – death and taxes.”
Ok to talk about it excessively would be morbid and unhealthy. It is to never talk about it I have a problem with.  I guess it is why I’m big on “all things in moderation.”  Too much of anything is unhealthy.
I have seen a number of people pass away.  Some go suddenly, while others linger.  I have visited hospital beds and seen people in this life for the last time, while others I have just been told they have gone.
A friend of mine has been diagnosed with a terminal tumor.  We are due to see them again tomorrow.  They are going downhill.  I do love their attitude though.  They say “it just means I am promoted earlier than the rest of you” (I have asked them to put in a good word for us).   A card I saw years ago has stuck with me and it said, sunset in one place is a sunrise in another.
I must confess there was a doctor who got on my wrong side concerning my dad.  He was well meaning but wrong!  I have been there, done that, and it is not pleasant.  Ok dad was 95 which is old in any ones’ language.  The thing was, this doctor implied that was enough.  Dad was in for flu and he had a couple of good years after that. 
I was also not happy at dads’ care when he did go.  The nurse had a trainee and it seemed the trainee was more switched on than the nurse.  The nurse had done a reading which was higher than it should be, but dismissed it saying the equipment was faulty.  I had determined to take dad to a different place the next day.  It turned out that was too late as he passed away that night.   Some may say “you should have done something earlier” but I was like a deer in the headlight at that point.  I was very dependent on the expertise of others.
I have learned, (sometimes to my own detriment), that depending on the expertise of another can sometimes get you in trouble.  The one who cares most about my life is me, and it pays me to be on top of a subject when I can.  That way, I wear the consequences, not another.
It is inevitable that one day all of us will pass to the great beyond.  I like to think of it as a “till we meet again” rather than a “farewell.”  The fact that people go makes me very sad despite its inevitability (my words cannot express my sorrow).
It will happen that one day it will be my turn.  It may come quick or I may linger.  As long as I am ready I like to think I am ok with it.