According to the Associated Press, the world’s oldest woman passed away peacefully at the age of 116 yesterday afternoon. After reading this article, it reminded me of a photo album I made my mom during her final bout with chemotherapy. This is what I wrote on the first page of the album:The day we are born, the sand starts slipping through our individual hour glass. For some, the sand falls quickly. Like a river that refuses to be dammed. These are the stories we refer to as “heartbreaking.” They are the children who die young. For others, their sand barely trickles through the opening; dropping out almost one grain at a time. These are the people we say are “lucky” to have lived so long. But neither group is heartbreaking nor lucky in my opinion. It’s simply the time God gave us on this Earth. Maybe the man who lived past 100 did nothing with his life. Was he lucky? And on the flipside, the story of a little girl who died before her 5th birthday yet changed the world. Is that heartbreaking? We can’t slow down our stream of sand. Nor can we speed it up. It is what it is. But you do have power over one thing. Only YOU can decide how much LIFE you have left to live. You get to pick and choose what you want to do with the remaining grains of sand that have yet fall. LIFE isnt determined in days, months and years. But in experiences that become memories for everyone involved. Go live your LIFE because no one knows how many grains of sand we have left.
10:45AM EST December 5. 2012 – MONROE, Ga. (AP) — The woman who was listed as the world’s oldest person died Tuesday in a Georgia nursing home at age 116.Besse Cooper died peacefully Tuesday afternoon in Monroe, according to her son Sidney Cooper. Monroe is about 45 miles east of Atlanta.
Cooper said his mother had been ill recently with a stomach virus, then felt better Monday.
On Tuesday, he said she had her hair set and watched a Christmas video, but later had trouble breathing. She was put on oxygen in her room and died there about 2 p.m., Cooper said.
“With her hair fixed it looked like she was ready to go,” he said.
STORY: Iowa woman is now world’s oldest person
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Love your metaphor about the sand in the hour glass. I lost my mother and father when they were too young to go, but treasured that I had known them at their best and never had to see them decline with illness.
Great blog!
That was beautiful, Wendy. You are such an inspiration, and a bright light in this world.
THANK YOU Lynnette! I really appreciate your kind words!
I agree with your metaphor, Wendy. God gives us a certain amount of time and we get to make a masterpiece out of it! Thanks for putting your heart out there for all of us to learn from. You’re an inspirational educator!