I don’t want to sound morbid or put a downer on anyone, but the other day I received a text message followed by a call that another friend of mine had passed away. I lost one two months ago and 2 others this year, and around 4 to 5 in the last four years, due to sickness, accidents, or suicide.
I Remember A Few Years Ago,
I walked into my parents’ house and Dad was sitting at the table, really sad and down. He was around 85 years of age and looking so sad, I’d never seen him like that. I asked what was going on. He looked at me with the saddest facial expression I’d ever seen on my Dad’s face. “I just lost my last mate. They’re all gone.”
I’ll never forget his look and what he said. He lost his last mate, I mean a real mate of many, many years. I’m sort of experiencing it in one way and yeah, I find it hard every time one of my all-time friends passes away. Over the last 10 years, we have lost eleven friends, true friends that a group of us around 25 have been friends from the school days and watched each other grow through life with marriages, kids, grandkids, divorce, and one we are experiencing a bit more of his death.
Now, as in mates over the last few years, we all sort of do our own thing. Some have shifted up north or down south, the east coast, some overseas. But we keep in touch and make sure we are always good with our family, friends, and life in general is good. We all know what we are doing and how we are traveling and throughout the year after winter, we come out of hibernation and catch up with BBQ and a chat, it’s really good and we all say we should do it more often but more often is like winning the lotto LOL.
One group of us in this photo has been mates since high school days and still are great friends. Yes, it’s another part of life experiences that we all go through: some are families, friends, and some are loved ones, like their wife or kids, grandparents, and so on. As I grew up, it was my pet dog that I had a few great best mate sort of dogs which destroyed me when they died of old age. But now it’s some of my true friends and one that I find very hard, but one I need to adapt to as it’s a part of life. I’m very lucky my parents are still alive and really healthy and well for 85 & 95, which is good. Some aren’t so lucky, and I understand how hard it would be to lose your parents.
Another Learning Part Of Life.
It is one we learn as we grow and one that seems to be a bit more frequent in life. Now I’m in my mid-sixties, and most of my mates are two to five years older than me. We all got together when Steve died a few months ago. It went eerily quiet, and one of the boys said, “Who’s next?” That brought a very silent thought, which you could hear all of with that thought. Johno was the one who passed away yesterday, but he had cancer and knew he was fighting a lost cause. I’d say most of us were relieved for him, as the pain and suffering he was going through wasn’t right for any human to suffer.
I find that I seem to, I wouldn’t say except for the death of a friend, but a bit stronger than I was a few years ago. We find that we work out things differently as we grow older, and we are very different as humans. We perceive sadness, happiness, love, and joy so differently as individuals. I had a cry last night because Johno and I had been through a fair bit, but he was so good with my kids when they were younger and Maree and I had separated. So yes, good times with Johno.
I look at and remember that life gives us challenges, some very powerful with the mind and soul. Some are very sad, some are very unique in ways. But for what they are, in life, we are challenged and tested to the limit. It’s like a test to see how we handle different situations that are in front of us. But for whatever the challenge, I think the key is to learn how to adapt and use experience that you might have had previously and work with it while looking ahead to get back on your feet or to just keep moving forward in life.
#Journey Through Life
mags64@journeythroughlife.blog
Journey Through Life... 