overlap

Not a borderline famous rock star, for once, but the grim reaper's been busy again within my world, if not especially close to me. Last week someone I first encountered over twenty-three years ago died, aged 77 which is hardly all that young. Last time I saw her, she said goodbye to me and it was entirely clear that it *was* goodbye rather than a variant of see you next time - she was definitely ready to go by then. Given two weeks to live on diagnosis, she died eight months later, which was long enough for everyone to get used to the idea and think about practical preparations, and make the most of the remaining time. She was not in much pain except for the last day, and her husband says that he was extremely lucky to have that long goodbye time and for it to come as neither a long drawn out painful death, nor a sudden shock for which nobody is prepared or expecting. In the circumstances you probably don't get much of a better go at the inevitable than that, and at that age after a full and happy family life, there's plenty to celebrate there. On that note, I also see Chad Varah's died, and that's another very frutiful life to be celebrated, not mourned.