If you were told your life ended tomorrow

im so so sorry

I'm so sorry 😞 Those words made me cry. You poor thing. Huge hugs 💖😢

I’d be sad as I have a lot left to live… but I’d also be super proud of what I have lived and achieved- very much against the odds most of the time. I have an amazing family and though I’ve not made my fortune, a really fulfilling career that has made a difference to people.
I am really grateful and lucky.

I've seen my DC grow into amazing adults. I've got dgs's who I love very much and enjoyed a great weekend with in early December ice skating and painting Xmas pottery and sharing Xmas gifts. I'd worry my partner would struggle to care for our 2 foster sons on his own. I retired at 57 after over 20 years of teaching which I really enjoyed working with young people and I've now had 7 years to enjoy being at home, going on holidays and doing as I please when I please, so I think I've had a great life. I'd like it to go on longer though.

This almost happened to me this year. I do feel I couldn't have lived a fuller and Rich life but I feel I have so much more to go (which is probably why I'm still here )

I'd think " well, it's been a blast. Pour me a large G&T please.

15 years ago, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I started measuring my life, not in coffee spoons, like J Alfred Prufrock, but quite close to that idea. I vowed when I was told it was curable, that I'd enjoy whatever time I had left.

by and large, that's what I've done for 15 years. And now, on my 75th birthday, I'm hoping that when I go, I go like Elsie, to paraphrase the song Cabaret.

@LadyMacbethWasFierce your last paragraph made me actually gasp , the description of your grief so raw . The Unimaginable pain you are going through and I am so so sorry x

Yes, I feel i've had a great life.

My mega worry would be leaving my kids. I'd like my youngest to be at least 21 before I shuffle off this mortal coil. Which would put me late 50s. I hope I am lucky enough to make it there.

@LadyMacbethWasFierce I am so sorry for your loss, and the unbearable pain that leaps out of your post 💔

Yes I have fulfilled what I wanted to in life in terms of studying, career, travel, marriage, children, finances, house and garden. I've had cancer so there's a risk one day it'll come back at stage 4 with 3 year life expectancy but am not that bothered as I've done what I wanted to and enjoyed my life and had my turn and if I had been born 100 years ago or before the age I am now was life expectancy. I would hope to be reunited with my granny, my great aunt and my uncle and be in my great aunt's thatched cottage eating her homemade lemon drizzle cake with tea with her dried flowers hanging everywhere and her amazing garden. I would worry for my youngest child though he's 18 now but rest is sorted. I used to always worry about my lovely DH dying before me and am relieved that may well not happen now.

I’d be devastated and while I lead a very fulfilling life, I’d be angry as it’s far from over.

My mum died at 41 when I was small and I’m just so aware of how much she missed. My kids are still young and I’d be furious at missing out (me and them) the way she and I did.

I'm happy with my life, but I'd be devastated knowing I would see my sweet little girl grow up.

Frankly; yes. But there's never enough, is there?

To answer the question no I haven't lived a fulfilled life.
I work full time and work an evening job too just to pay the rent.
It's tough as a single income household but I do it for my kids stability.

I don't fear dying but I worry about no one there to look out for my kids.

100% yes.

Most people would say no. Don't you think.
Unless they've had an unusual moment of clarity earlier, a near death experience to shake them up and out of their stupor, or are a Buddhist.

So very sorry to read your post @LadyMacbethWasFierce
I can not begin to imagine what you are going through ❣️

Life can be so damm cruel.

As for me I’m not ready to go not even remotely I’m only 52. I’d feel relieved and proud I’d raised 2 kids pretty much to adulthood, but they’re still too young to have no mum. Obviously I appreciate there are plenty of kids who are their ages with no mum and it’s something they’d have to live with if it happened

God I’m so sorry. Heartbreaking 💔

Totally relaxed about it. Sometimes I wonder whether different decisions would have had better outcomes, but they could as likely have had worse. In some ways I wish I had lived more selfishly- I’ve done a lot of ‘social good’, if you like. Maybe I should have tried less hard and just done what was best for me.
I don’t regret anything though and I’m ready. I think DH would struggle though, and be a burden on my DSs. I’d like them to have more fun before they had to worry about their Dad.

Since I hit 50, I feel I've kind of come to peace with the idea of death but, also, I kind of think of it something that will happen (hopefully) way, way, WAY in the future. That said, if I died tomorrow, other than being a bit pissed off I did all this Xmas stuff and ruined the whole thing by dying, I think my life has been pretty great up to now. It definitely improved after I reclaimed myself a little from the years of being a SAHM and started asking myself what I wanted, not what everyone else wanted. And I became a better Mum from that too.

I wouldn’t be thinking about if I’ve lived a fulfilled life tbh. It’s been okay - I’ve enjoyed some parts and wouldn’t particularly change anything as those were the choices I made with the knowledge I had at the time. I would be more panicking about leaving my child than reminiscing I think.

Working in the funeral industry it's an insight into how people are viewed by those nearest to them. Sometimes, like today you see a loving family grieving, long term friends saying goodbye and real sense of loss. Often, sadly quite often, there's not a wet eye in the house and there's a sense of well that's,that their gone, let's move on.

Personally I'm only 57, but don't expect to live to a ripe age given my family history. But I started with very little, went to a dreadful school, had a career and walked away on my terms to a self employed job I loved. Now basically retired and I want to travel more.

Two regrets in life one of which I could fix. But as a friend messaged me as he was terminally ill of cancelled at 56. "I've had a crack". And I have. I've married my soul mate, met some great people, had some (a lot) of great nights (and days out), drunk a lot and laughed a lot...yeah I could go tomorrow, I don't want to mind.

I am so absolutely devastated for you. Would you like to tell us about her? I'm so very sorry.

Im not afraid or scared of death.
Bring the next life on.

@LadyMacbethWasFierce I nodded along to the first 2 paragraphs of your post thinking “yep, that’s me, that’s just what I wanted to say”
Then to read your news was devastating. I have two DC, both teenagers, and I live in daily dread of losing one of them. It would change me forever, as no doubt it has changed you.
I am so sorry this has happened to you.