Sunday, June 14, 2015

"Not Every Death Is the End of A Well-Lived Life"

This piece touched me so I'm sharing it with you. 

"One Friday we were only four in the room: my husband and I, another middle-aged man, like us, and a young woman. We started talking, and she told us about her life and her illness. It transpired that she recently had gotten married and had a small baby."

"Suddenly the man, who sat with us, blurted, “It is so unfair that you are sick, you are so young, and have a baby.”

"Without missing a beat, she retorted: “You are wrong, I am much luckier than a young child who has cancer, at least I got to have a life and even had a baby.”

"This was unexpected and we didn’t know what to say. She clearly didn’t want our outrage or our pity. In spite of what she said, I couldn’t think of anything worse than what had happened to her."

"Inspiration could appear in strange places, and still make a difference. In hard times people tend to cling to superstitions, some even believe that walking under a ladder brings bad luck. The young woman gave us a different kind of luck ladder where a small child, who is the most unlucky, is placed at the bottom. She placed herself several steps above the child. After we heard her speak it was simple for us to place ourselves on that ladder. We both were luckier than the young woman."