Everlasting Love

" I live in a council flat. I am a widow. My husband died 3 years ago. We looked after each other for 46 years. We went everywhere together. I still miss him very much."

I came across this statement today. It stopped me in my tracks. No, I did not read this in a lifestyle magazine or heard it on a live chat show. It seemed so out of place, and yet so much in context. It was a response to a question about her home living condition. I usually just gloss over the nursy bits of the preoperative assessment form and zoom in on the medical section. I could sense that this was a very special lady. She has so many problems and yet was upbeat about everything. "Till death do us part" was a vow that she obvious clung onto to well beyond the grave. I was touched......I was impressed........and I was humbled. It was just so profound. It just resonates with something deep within myself..........perhaps a part of myself that I have yet to comprehend. It caused me to reflect. Am I also capable of such depth of love?? Amazing love!

48 hours to live..

Have you ever been in a consultation with a doctor and he tells you that your loved one has only 48 hours to live? Or have you been told by a cancer specialist that you would only have another 6 months of life left in you? How do the doctors know? Do they keep a life-o-meter that they can be almost exact in predicting the duration of life left of a person in their care? Are all these evidence- based or evidence-free medicine? Is it helpful for the patients and relatives when these proclamations are made? Perhaps, it may spur them into making those decisions that they have always procrastinate on, e.g. in making a will, or making amends with their estranged ones? Or worse, could these be the beginning of a self-fulfilling prophecy? And heaven forbids....could the doctors be suffering from their schizophrenic god-like delusions again..????!!

The Casual Philosopher ponders on...