Odd way to put things into perspective

[Diane]

I wrote an email today to a friend and realized it would might be something of interest on here so i copied and pasted.........

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My landlord who lives right across the driveway from me, has a son who just turned 31 and has been married maybe about 6 years. They found out he had lung/bone cancer about a year ago ,and they were devastated . He seemed to improve for a while and then had some ups and downs, and some very scary moments .The other day i asked how he was doing and my landlord told me he isn't doing well at all. The cancer reached his brain and they gave him about a month. How shocking, and unbelievably sad. The reason i am mentioning this is because everyone assumes that because we have cf we are doomed . Here was a perfectly healthy guy who never smoked a day in his life, never did drugs, played by all the rules and he is dieing young. In some twisted way it helps me deal with what i go thru, and helps me put it into perspective. Scary i know...........

 

[Diane]

I meant to add that a lot of us tend to think because we have cf we are automatically going to die young. But this goes to show that even if we were born perfectly healthy and did everything right and perfect we STILL arent guaranteed a long life.

 

[Jane]

The very same thing happened in my family, both my cousin and my husband's cousin died of cancer in their 20s. Very very sad.

I agree with your post about never knowing when. Good for you for seeing the silver lining!! Something about these events always bothers me though. We've talked about this before I know, but why do people feels its much more tragic and sad when a healthy person dies suddenly (or after a short illness), than it is for a person who has battled a disease all his/her life?

Maybe I'm wrong, but its the way it seems to me.

 

[anonymous]

Point well taken! I totally see where you are coming from. Who knows~ right? I have often felt that CF has helped me to enjoy life with Troy, not dwell on life without him.

karenb

 

[anonymous]

Diane what you said was so true. My friends in high school used to always mention how bad they felt that I would die young - not really understanding how unpredictable CF can be - and I just used to say that they could die young too. You never know what life has in store for you.


<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>why do people feels its much more tragic and sad when a healthy person dies suddenly (or after a short illness), than it is for a person who has battled a disease all his/her life?
~Jane </end quote></div>

I don't think that it is any more/less sad, but many times when people are taken quickly and unexpectedly people don't have a chance to say goodbye. That I think can be hard for people. A friend of ours (mine and Kurts) was killed in a drunk driving accident (she was sober - guy who hit her was drunk). It was surreal. No one believed it because many people had just seen/spoken to her - it was hard because it was SO unexpected. At the same time we have had family members suffer with illness and pass and it was hard too, but we had time to prepare for the loss because we knew it was coming.