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Friday, October 19, 2007

Life, the moment, and friends

A couple of nights ago, at a delightful, wondrous event for a local literary society, I received some sad news. A friend of mine has dementia and is in a nursing home.

How did I have to learn this secondhand? Because this friend, an excellent, talented artist, was so engaged with life that I rarely saw her. She traveled all over the world, sometimes alone, sometimes for conferences and workshops. She created a successful business from scratch in the early seventies and continued to work that business, successfully. Brilliant, creative, intelligent. A bit of a health nut. And only seventy, too young by today's standards for such an illness.

So, being in the process of my own self-employment, I didn't realize 18 months had passed without contact. Not long, in terms of our friendship of 25 years. But long enough.

What have I remembered? We only have this moment. Reach out to loved ones, friends and family. And hug.

2 comments:

Nancy P said...

Conda, I'm so sorry to hear this. When my father had dementia, I used to tell myself that his consciousness had gone on to more interesting things, leaving his body behind. May have been wishful thinking, but it made me feel better.

Conda Douglas said...

Thank you, Nancy, for that lovely and comforting thought.