Life..............!

Jon (not his real name) had recently started walking with a stick. In his early 80's, he was a widower and lived alone. The charity we were both doing voluntary work for was a lifeline for him. It gave him a social outlet and kept loneliness from his door.

I really like him, but recently although he still attended he seemed able to do less and less. 

This week while chatting together I asked him how he was doing.

"Not great, I'm seeing the doctor next week and following that I should know more about what the future has for me".

Now you know something must be badly wrong if a man in the UK admits to ill health. A common greeting in the UK is, " morning, how are you today"? 

With a typical response being "not bad and how are you"?

The man responding thus may actually be a few hours from death, but would never admit to any other response then "not bad"!

So Jon's response caused me to pause for a moment.

And then I noticed his eyes. Confused and a bit frightened. I'd seen this before; In my mother in law, waiting on MND to take her life and scared by how her end would happen. In a family friend being destroyed by cancer.

And in others, all facing up to their end.

I'm a naturally a reserved person, but occasionally even I know what to do. And this was one of those occasions. 

It also turned out that I was also the right person as well who'd have thought it!

"Hope it's not bad news"? I said, already sure that it was.

"I've been treated for Parkinson's"

I felt relief. Bad but not the worst.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but it could be worse. You should be able to have a decent quality of life for a few years".

And I told him how I was finding it.

"The consultant no longer believes that it's Parkinson's"

"What does he think it is?"

"He's not sure, I've been checked for various neurological conditions"

And here he paused for a second 

"Including MND"

Off all the possible neurological conditions to get, Parkinson's is one of the better one's, if you have to suffer from one.

MND however is one of the worst. With no hope and with no real treatments. Not even the promise of a dignified death.

We chatted, with me saying when we had finished, "Let's hope it is Parkinson's", something I'd never thought I'd say. He thanked me. 

My sister burst into tears. She was in a lot of pain and the painkillers had still to kick in. She'd just had a double mastectomy and had been unceremoniously sent home within 24 hours of the operation. 

Carrying two drainage bags, allowing the wounds to clear. 

All this after three months of the latest chemotherapy the next stage was this operation. Understandably she had mixed feelings about having it. 

However you looked at it, it would leave her physically very different. 

And this isn't the end. She has further months of chemotherapy to look forward to. Fortunately not as grueling as what she had just gone through.

And then years perhaps of uncertainty. Has the treatment worked? Will the cancer come back? Will I live?

And there will be more tears yet to come.

Life can be rich, rewarding and fun.

It can also be full of pain and fear. 

Sometimes it can be taken for granted. That there will always be a rich tomorrow. That life will continue.

But it doesn't. Lucky is the person who goes from birth to death without something serious going wrong. Cancer. MND. Parkinson's.

Or some other condition.

Life is great, don't waste it.