When you are young you are all alike, striving to be different, and death confers some sort of celebrity. But you don’t really understand the value of what is lost.
When you get older you are woven deeper into the fabric of life, part of generations both older and younger than yourself, linked to friends and colleagues, touching so many different lives.
A work colleague died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. I heard on Friday morning, and did my best to phone round those that knew her best.
It was a pleasure to work with Jess, she was like a child in a sweetshop, seeing everything as an opportunity, keen to try things out and put her imagination to good use. But she was also a tremendously warm person, I used to tease her about trying to sort out all Scotland’s problems through lunching with different people. She made friends wherever she went, and kept friends whenever she moved on. She was a permanent reminder that we should strive to make a real difference to people’s lives if it is in our power.
One tiny example, after she was diagnosed with cancer she was outraged with the indignity of hospital gowns, that opened up the back. Never one to rant when she could make a difference she campaigned on this, publishing a lengthy article in the Herald.
We all have to figure out what we believe in, Jess is gone now. But she was so very alive when she was alive, she touched so many lives in such a positive way, she is a part of what is good about the future. We all exist in a wider context, touching lives and making a difference. We should all strive to fill that gap that only we can, making a difference through what we do, and how we do it. When you die you leave so little behind, but let it be good whatever it is.
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