These days news of death affect me much more than before. Is it because I am older and therefore closer to death than before? Or is it because I increasingly realize how vulnerable and fragile life is? Or is it because I can now better imagine how terrible it is to lose a loved one, whereas I was previously rather oblivious?
Elizabeth Edwards died from cancer. I do not envy her life - losing her son at age 16 to a car accident, being diagnosed with cancer a few years after she gave birth to her youngest child at age 50 due to aggressive fertility treatments which probably resulted in the cancer, seeing her once-dashing husband turn into a much ridiculed figure (in public and by herself) and now finally dying at a relatively young age of 61. I wonder – why was she so unlucky?
But that is a question that cannot be answered by anyone. Maybe by comparison to many people out there, she already lived a very lucky life. She has three beautiful and thriving kids. She had a good marriage for many years. She has a lot friends and family to support her. She has fortune that allowed her to have and do things that other less fortunate people cannot. She has felt her impact in the society. Yes, perhaps she was lucky after all.
Death humbles the most arrogant of us, and it makes us all appreciate life and treasure what we have.
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