On Death and Dying

The doctors told my mother-in-law today that my father-in-law has only a couple of weeks to live. He's still pretty much in denial, still wanting to go car shopping or whatever. I hear his actions and shake my head, thinking why would you want to spend your last days like that. It's easy to be superior when it's not you in the situation. I look in the mirror, frown at a few more wrinkles, worry about the hair I find in the sink and my ever-expanding waistlline, but turn away and figure I have years before I have to think about dying. I don't feel any different than I did when I was twenty, so I can't be that old, right? But ...

But what if you did know you had only two weeks to live? Would you spend those two weeks in denial? Would you rail against the unfairness of it all? What difference would your faith make? It's easy to say what you would or wouldn't do when you really don't have to face the situation, but I'm guessing it's quite a different matter when it actually is you. My mother-in-law has a great attitude, particularly when you consider that she and my father-in-law probably should have divorced years ago. She says she just wants to enjoy him while he's here. Hubby snidely suggested she might mean tolerate, but she corrected him and said, no, enjoy was the word she meant. It's kind of interesting and nice to know that she still remembers that at one time she loved him enough to marry him. I hope I'm that way if need be some day (I hope even more that I don't have to be, but that's another rant).

Oh, and for the record, while I really don't have to think about it seriously, if I ever get to the point that I definitely only have a couple of weeks left? I'm going to go to Santorini, Greece, and sit on the beach.