When its your time...

[007]

I'm having trouble formulating my thoughts today.

A boating buddy got caught in a wind sheer that tore up his bimini after getting caught in a pretty strong storm on Sat. He then had a scare with low visibility and oncoming traffic. Plenty of people (on this site) had a great boating weekend in SW Missouri in spite of some heavy storms in the area. I turn on the tv this morning and hear the news that a local business owner got caught storms in his small aircraft, crashed and lost his life. Its not a personal loss for me, but I was in this guy's home about 6 months ago on business. He was 8 years older than me and full of life. He was flying back from Table Rock Lake with his hunting dog and texted his family he had run into some bad turbulence. Early indications are possibly engine and/or wing failure.

In any case, its just been on my mind all day. I guess we sometimes take life for granted, you never know when it can all be taken away...

 

[njmr2fan]

I just learned that a dear friends father passed away. 68 years old, sounds like a massive heart attack. So Im in the same situation today. He's been on my mind and I cant stop thinking that just when you get to a place in life when you can slow down and enjoy things the clock ticks and your time is up.

 

[Julian]

Yeah.....life is often something we all take for granted. One of my favorite sayings is "Life is not a dress rehearsal".

My mom is in Stage 6 of Alzheimer's Disease and I talked to her on the phone Saturday and usually she can babble something unintelligible to me (happily), and she couldn't. Hit home to me that she's gone. My brother (who my parents now live with in Tampa) says that he still gets the odd moment of what he thinks is recognition. But man its a crappy thing to go through. And of course we each turn these things towards our own situation, so when I forget the name of a guy I should know the name of...I immediately think....Stage 2 Alzheimer's! (Lose things around the house.....if that is a measure....I've been in stage 2 for a LONG TIME!!!!)

An 11 year old girl died zip lining here in NC over the weekend.....that just ain't right.....that one shocked me....

Sorry for your losses....hug your kids and always try to part with them with a smile!

 

[GiddYupJoe]

That's crazy you just posted this thought today. My wife's friend from highschool just passed yesterday. 35 yrs old wife and two kids left behind. Fell off of some scaffolding at work. It really hit home for her for the fact, what if something were to happen to myself.

I always tell her that we can only be prepared of something like that happening. But we can't control when/if it does. I also comfort these thoughts knowing that the family will be taken care of financially if something would happen to either of us. Our kids on the other hand... I can't even begin to grasp something happening to either one of the boys. That scares the crap out of me!

 

[Bruce]

@Julian, my Paternal Grandmother died from dementia at 95. She had been diagnosed with 90%+ blockage of blood flow in her neck in her 70s but elected not to be treated. She reinjured a knee at 89 and was not able to walk again. She lived with my parents until she passed. She had hospice care in their home for the last three years. She regressed mentally. First she wanted to take her to her home. We took her to the last home she lived in but figured out she wanted to go to her childhood home which was in an area that is now fully grown in timber. Then she started asking for her husband who had been dead for close to 20 years. At some point she decided that my Father was her husband and my Mom was the other woman. Then she moved on to asking for her parents. Eventually she lost the ability to speak then to eat. She was fed well until the last two weeks. At that point she began to bleed after eating. At the doctors requests we stopped feeding her. It took 14 days for her to starve. I had accepted her loss long before she actually died. My Dad tried to hang on.

I watched a neighbor progress through Alzheimers. It was comparatively quick but terrible to watch.

Losing your mind before your body is a terrible thing. But the worst part is that my Dad is constantly in fear of having dementia. Every time he forgets something he decides he is losing his mind. He gets so stressed about it that he starts to show symptoms. The biggest relief of his stress was when he went to a doctor and took a test that he scored 90% on. She diagnosed him with early signs of dementia, gave him daily medicine and asked him to come back once a year. Please do not get caught up in the fear of losing your mind.

 

[007]

Wow, crazy day out there. Sorry for those with tragedy close to home. My grandfather also suffered sever Alzheimers. I don't mean this in any disrespect to those with family going through it, but when I got over the shock of him forgetting my grandmother and thinking I was my dad, I heard some amazingly stories from him. He could tell me in vivid detail about girls he dated before WWII and some the crap he went through as a MP on the front line in Europe. It was fascinating what he could remember from long ago and yet had forgot almost half of his adult life.

Don't worry @Julian, I always forget names (worst trait in the world for a sales person) and where I put stuff. My wife describes it as my "artistic" side...