So many who come close to death will say that all the cares and trappings of the world vanish and the truly important comes into perspective. If everyone lived as though today were their last, we would not have hatred and pettiness toward one another, we would love and give to the poor and we would want to come close to God and make all that is eternal a part of our daily lives. The real deception is the distractions of the world telling us to deny the reality of death, or that there is no eternity but only the here and now. That is truly scary.

That being said, I want to thank you for this article. My father had his first heart attack when I was 10, and forever after, my mother prefaced some statements with, “Well, if Dad’s still alive in the summer, we might vacation at…..”, or “If Dad is still with us at Christmas, we might go…..” That alone taught me never to end a conversation or leave someone without telling them that I loved them–I might never have another chance. It taught me to see death as a gateway to what I really wanted out of life: to go home! I learned to value people, not things. (And, btw, my father outlived my mother by 8 years! Talk about God’s sense of humor!)