A loss is felt when someone dies. It is felt more when it is someone you know; even more than that if they are related. But there is something unique about the death of someone you know who is your same age. I know that when it happened to me, I became aware, for the first time, of how easily death might have come to me instead.

I used to work in hospitals. Never were nursing staff members more emotionally involved with a seriously ill patient than when the patient was of a similar age.

I have come to realize that we can never know when our physical abilities or even our lives might be taken from us. This is why I feel it is so very important to make the best use of what we have right now.