The Golden Years
I'm not sure that I would consider this a vent, but perhaps a discussion or something along those lines. Lately I've learned of several people who recently retired or are about to retire who became really sick. The most recent sadness was for my former boss. This man was a very hard worker, held several high positions in the community, did very well for himself financially and was just a great guy. He retired three years ago and spent half the year in St. George and the other half in Bear Lake, it doesn't get much greater than that. Well a few months ago he was diagnosed with cancer and he died this past weekend.
Now, the reason I bring this up is because I don't think it's fair. Why is it that a person works hard their whole life, raises a family (not always but in many instances), plans a great retirement, is fairly young in the grand scheme of things, only to discover they have a horrible disease and die.
I think it's wrong. You should be able to retire and live many years just enjoying life! I hope to retire to an island and die right before I have to start wearing diapers. That would be the best.
P.S. I should add that my faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not lacking in any way. I know that it is far better to be in heaven (or wherever Heavenly Father desires us to be) but still, it would be nice to be able to enjoy life and watch your grandchildren grow up. I should also add that diseases like cancer suck at any point in time of a persons life, but for this post, I only referred to retirement. Please don't take this as only people who are retired should be free from illnesses or tragedies.
5 comments:
Amen. We have a friend with 2 young kids & a sweet wife who has leukemia & was just rushed to the Huntsman center today in some sort of emergency. It really is sad, no matter how you look at how people suffer. He just finished school & was ready to get into a career & enjoy life after all the hard work of graduating, etc. We hope he pulls through, but it's looking scary because they don't know exactly what is wrong. It is sad for me to think about what I will do without my grandparents. I still have all 4, so does Lorin & we selfishly wonder how we will feel when they die & what it will be like for our kids that never know them. I know it's part of the plan, but definitely a hard part.
I'm sorry Jess. That is really sad. You should be able to enjoy that part of your life, like a reward for a job well done. I also do not want to be around for the diaper years.
There are some parts of this life that just seem to not make sense. We all live such different lives and have such different experiences, yet one thing we all have in common, birth and death. For something that we all have to do, death never seems to get easier when it happens. We all know people move on to a better, fairer, and more perfect place, but for those left behind, the pain of missing them seems hard to overcome. If we got to choose our departure time, right before the diapers would be ideal!
Paige, I'm so sorry for your friend, that's so awful. I hope the best for them.
Diana, thank you for your comments. You are someone I look up to and you are just a really wonderful person.
I completely agree with you. There seems something so unfair about all these young and young-ish people being taken from their families. Why can't the crappy people filling up prisons die of some of these horrible diseases and let the rest of us enjoy what we've earned???
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