3.31.2016
This past week, Patty Duke suddenly died. She was only 69 and I will be turning 67 in just 42 days. Like many in my generation, I grew up with Patty Duke who played Helen Keller with Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker and on the Patty Duke Show when she played identical twins—a carefree one in America and the other reserved one in England. Recently, it just seems that there has been many well-known people who died what seems to be too early. When people died in the past and I was younger, they died when they were old. But today, as I am getting older each day, the people who have lived a full life—some with the fortune of living to a rather older age and those who just had the misfortune of dying at a younger age, I wonder why so early?
Statistically, I have read that if I lived to 65 and am in relatively good health, I can expect to live to the age of 84. That leaves about 17 years to go. I know that I can still work about 3 hours on weeding and gardening but now I need to take more time to recover from all the tired muscles and aches. I am more conscious of lifting heavy things with the fear of getting another hernia. Since my retirement 9 months ago, I have taken up riding a mountain bike; a used bike from Lauren but it’s awfully hard to ride up our Sausalito hills to come back home. I have been talking about buying a new road bike that would be lighter and perhaps I can bike all the way home without having to walk the bike up the hill. But I haven’t forked out the money even though I can afford it thinking that is it worth it when I may only be riding for another 4-5 years. Is death that close in my thinking?
Unsurprisingly, Joy and I have been talking about how to spend the rest of our lives. I have lived more years than the years I have left. I checked Alaska as the last state that I haven’t been to off my bucket list last August. I hope to lived long enough to see Evi graduate from high school. I hope to see one of our grandkids get married. What a wonderful blessing it would be to live to see a great-grandchild! Only God knows.
As the days and hopefully the years peal away, the space between living and dying will become closer and closer. I won’t have my physical prowess to overcome my weakening muscles. I won’t have my firm stand or my swift feet on the tennis court anymore. There will be more famous people whom I grew up with returning to the Lord and I will soon come to the realization that death is closer than I like but I pray with God’s grace that when death comes, it’s the time to return to God.
Death is closer than I like for now but in faith, eternal life is closer that I like when death on earth comes.