In the last few years of my dear uncle’s life, I’d go round to visit and shout from the front door, “Hello Uncle. How’re you?” He’d shout back, “Dying, but apart from that I’m fine.” The first time he said that, it was like a knife ripping through me and he could see my distress. He said, “I’m nearly ninety. I’ve got heart disease and cancer. But I’ve had a great life, I’m happy and at peace with myself. Don’t worry about it.”
I realised that he was taking his responsibilities seriously and doing his job, bringing up the young ‘uns. Yeah, I know we baby boomers are now middle-aged, but to our parents generation, those that are left, we’re still the kids. And he was trying to get me to understand that there comes a time when death isn’t daunting, but something natural and even something to joke about. He died peacefully a few months ago. He was a good man.
Tonight, visiting at the hospital, I drew the same elder that I drew last night, as he dozed. I’d treated myself to a new Pentel V5 pen earlier and scribbled into my little leather-bound recycled sketchbook. He woke shortly after and we had a chat about the audio-book he’d been listening to – The Da Vinci Code. He thought it was a ripping yarn. So did I 🙂
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Tags: art, baby boomers, da Vinci Code, drawing, dying, elders, family, hospital, sketchbooks
