He said…
“When I sit in my room, as I often do. I think about the last 60 or 70 years. Mulling over everything I’ve done. Everyone I’ve known. Thinking about my life. That’s what you do at my age (97)
And I think that I’d like to get back on that big old boat, lay next to her and hold her hand. And talk until 2 in the morning. We could look up at all the stars over us. With nowhere to go. And nothing important to do.”
His wife was ill with cancer. She died shortly there after. He lived 50 plus years since then. He watched his second love die this past year. Of Alzheimers. He has fought in wars. Has so many stories to tell. Touched so many lives. Including mine. He has seen the world change. Lived the life that some only get to live half of. We visit him once a year on Halloween. And that is not enough.
The last thing he asked…..was if we would rent a wheelchair for him, and wheel him out to the field so he could watch my son play baseball. He is nearly completely blind. But that makes no difference to him.
This man. He has lived. And loved. Over and over.
