Tag: Death

• Feeling well while dying

  Supposedly, I am dying. But right now I feel more alive than I have in years. Six hours of surgery on November 29 removed a brain tumor. My minor balancing issue that sent me to a hospital and into surgery is gone. I’ve gotten physical therapy I’m not sure I needed but certainly didn’t hurt.…

  Mark

  December 24, 2022

  Life 2022

  Death, Dying

• Cane and able

  So it turns out that permanent disability is the least of my problems. Death is my real problem. If you read me regularly, you’ll know that I had a brain tumor removed on November 29. The good: the surgeon removed the whole thing. The bad: it’s cancerous, and not the kind of cancer likely to…

  Mark

  December 18, 2022

  Life 2022

  brain tumors, cancer, Death, Dying

• Goodbye Marie

  Not everyone can say they’ve buried three mothers. Okay, technically I didn’t bury any of them except my real mom. As she was cremated, it meant handing a box of her ashes to a cemetery worker who put them underground. The second “mom” to go was my mother in law in 2012. That should have…

  Mark

  August 21, 2022

  Life 2022

  Catholicism, Death, Dying, Families, Funerals, Love, Stepmothers

• What should be done with my corpse?

  I’m remembering an old B.C. comic strip: B.C.: What was I before I was what I was, and what will I be when I’m not? Peter: You were what you were before you are what you are, and you will be what you ain’t. That makes sense, sort of. It doesn’t explain anything, but it’s…

  Mark

  July 4, 2022

  Life 2022

  Cremation, Death

• When it comes to dying and coping with life, religion probably isn’t helping

  I turned 65 recently. This makes me officially old, in that I’m now old enough for Medicare. The good news is that for the first time in my life I’m on socialized medicine. The bad news is, well, I’m 65. My mother died at 85, my father at 89. That’s pretty long as lives go,…

  Mark

  February 9, 2022

  Life 2022

  Catholicism, Christianity, Death, Dying, Nones, Religion, Secularism

• The best in life is yet to be: an essay on healthy mortality

  Another birthday has come and gone. Since this one did not end in a zero, it did not deserve particular attention. But since I am in my sixties now, most of my life is firmly in the past. I’ll be fortunate if only two-thirds of it is in my past. Aside from a nice dinner…

  Mark

  February 4, 2019

  Life 2019, Philosophy

  Aging, Albert Einstein, Birthdays, Death, Dying, Retirement, Space-Time

• Scared to death

  Did you see the video of Donald Trump’s hair (or more accurately his lack of it)? It looks like on February 6th Trump had a really bad hair day. The camera caught these moments when he was ascending into Air Force One. Trump of course goes through great length to hide his thinning hair. While…

  Mark

  February 10, 2018

  Life 2017, Philosophy, Sociology

  Ask the Mortician, COPD, COQ-10, Death, Donald Trump, Dying, Melania Trump, Progressive supranuclear palsy

• Is marriage naturally better the second time around?

  Our next-door neighbor Suzanne passed away unexpectedly six days ago. On Monday she was complaining about her gut hurting. On Tuesday she had a four-hour surgery to try to repair an intestinal blockage. She moved from surgery to critical care. On Wednesday afternoon she was dead, her husband Bill became a widower and everyone on…

  Mark

  October 17, 2017

  Life 2017, Sociology

  Death, Marriage, Second marriages

• Happy Fathers Day to me

  This year for the first time in my life there is no father to call. No father to send a card to. No father to give an unneeded tie to either. So today has become something of a bummer of a holiday for me. Yet it is a bridge we all must pass in time…

  Mark

  June 19, 2016

  Life 2016

  Daughters, Death, Fathers, Fathers Day, Meaning

• Eulogy for my father

  Grace: (in Christian belief) is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. My sister Mary related an anecdote about my father, who passed away on Monday at age 89. Two days before his death, she had to return to Holy Cross Hospital in…

  Mark

  February 3, 2016

  Best of Occam’s Razor, Life 2016

  Death, Dying, Empathy, Fathers, Kindness, Love, Relationships