My sister used to be a home health care aide. She lived with an elderly woman taking care of her full-time for about 3 years. After my sister started her family she left the job. This weekend we found out that the woman she cared for had passed away this summer at 101 years old.
When she sent me the link to the obituary I thought to myself, “3 paragraphs?” 101 years of life and all that sums it up are 3 paragraphs? What happened to the drama, the heartache, the pleasure, the passion and the uncertainty that I am sure she experienced throughout her life?
Do these small moments, the short lived falls from grace, the momentary blissful experiences, what do they really mean in the grand scheme of things?
As I study the biographies of great achievers, I ask myself what their lives mean too. Once I was reading a biography about Mother Teresa and one line stuck out to me. It read: She worked at the school for 15 years.
I stopped reading and put the book down. That sentence really captivated me. 15 years of her life reduced to one sentence.
One sentence.
What does life really mean when all that will remain are- your children, if you’re lucky?
