On Thursday morning, a long-term family friend, Neil, passed away of cancer. It started last year, in his pancreas. It then spread like a wildfire through a lot of his body, until it finally took him over. It feels odd to be writing this. Neil, even though he lived in Essex, was ever present. If we held a party, we would always invite him & his wife Lesley. My parents went on walking holidays with them all the time, even when the cancer was tightening it's vile, malicious grip. It feels odd knowing that we will never see him again. Never see him doting on his beloved dog Libby, or laughing with my parents.
The last time I saw him was in March. I couldn't get over how healthy, how full of life he looked. The last time I had seen him before that was on New Years Eve and he looked a shadow of his former self. Then to see him looking so...healthy shocked us all. We all knew the cancer was terminal. We all thought he had at least 6 months left in him. But then it was found in April that the cancer had spread to his duodenum. He couldn't eat. He couldn't drink. My parents went up to see him last weekend and to hear how close this vibrant, life-loving man was to succumbing to this awful disease was heart-breaking. We then got the news, early on Thursday morning, that he had passed away. It's hard to see your parents cry, to hear the grief in their voices.
This got me to thinking. We moan about our jobs. We cry over men. We spend hours & hours doing things like this without thinking that the vast majority of us have something that so many people out there crave - the opportunity to live, the knowledge that there isn't something dark hovering over us, waiting to eat us whole. So, I have made a vow. Not to moan about my job. Not to moan about being single. But to embrace life. Whether this means going travelling, taking that one leap of faith and telling someone how you feel about them or finally getting that dream job, the one you are eager to get to every morning, I don't know. But all I know is that I no longer want to wallow in self pity, as has been my wont recently.
So this is my message to everyone. Go out there and live and be thankful for every day you have.
