Two texts arrived within minutes. One on my husband’s phone — a friend who was also a client had lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was one of very few to make it almost five years since diagnosis. His daughter texted to tell us the news and invited us to services planned this weekend. It hit me hard. It’s the fifth death of a friend in a short amount of time. I feel mortality is fleeting and I’m scared, especially with my DIL’s cancer. It’s all too real.

Then my phone pinged and there was a picture of a beautiful newborn baby boy. The mother is a swimmer from our club team and was close to my son and daughter. I talk to her mother almost every week. She’s been one of my closest friends for years. I remember the first time I met her, we were at our first swim meet with our son and I felt lost and overwhelmed. My soon to be friend was the only smiling face I saw that day. She drove our second car from Palm Springs to Arizona on the day we moved, her husband following behind in their car. Now that’s a friend. What a joy to see a photo of new life in their family at that moment…

This weekend we’ll be going to a funeral as well as celebrating my dad’s 92nd birthday. That’s life. That’s death. Sadness. Joy.

Today, in my online writing class at Gotham Writers on plots (Gotham Writers was recommended by LA from Waking Up on the Wrong Side of 50) I learned about Life and Death as a theme in plots. A coincidence? I think not.

Then I began a book to read, “The Indigo Girl” by Natasha Boyd. Here’s the opening page:

“No time is ours but the present…and that so fleeting, we can hardly be said to exist.” Eliza Lucas 1722-1793

The Indigo Girl, A novel by Natasha Boyd

What are your thoughts about Life and Death? Do you think it’s unusual to learn about a death and a birth within minutes?