He said that he was feeling some anxiety as he got older about death and asked me if this was also true for me. I assumed he meant anxiety over the whole is there life after death, the do we continue to be or not to be question. I told him no, not really. If there is “something” I think I’ve led a pretty decent life and will probably be granted admission and if there is nothing, well, I guess I won’t know any better. He told me that’s not what he meant, and then he got this wistful, sad look in his eyes and said, “I worry that I’ll miss certain people somehow, and that they’ll miss me.”

How we need to connect. It is the universal human desire, to love and to be loved. Maybe I should have told him not to worry, that love never dies, that we live on forever simply because we have loved. But I didn’t say anything. Instead, I thought about what he said and I wondered…who will miss me?

Loving Hands photo by Christine Ellis at Art.com