I have heard people say that the years in life don't matter, it is the life in the years that really matters. Sounds good. Gave me goosebumps when I heard it first. But how practical is it? Let me rephrase that.... How easy is it?...........Okay let me rephrase again.......How difficult is it?
I still remember a man in his early forties in the Surgery wards during my med school. He was suffering from a kind of stomach cancer and was 'Medically destined' to die by the Professors. He was to undergo a CT Scan of the abdomen and due to administrative faults and loopholes, his CT Scan appointment kept on being postponed. While the relatives, friends and acquaintances of the Professors and also other influential people got their CT Scans, for as minor as problem possible, done out of turn, this man, would wait in the ward laughing around with other patients and sometimes with me too.
In his eyes I could see just three things, one, the knowledge that he had a deadly disease, two,hope that all will be well, and three, fearlesness of death. I can't understand how a man could be so lively in such a condition. I never knew whather he got his CT Scans and Barium studies done, or whether he lived or died......But one thing I know is that he had conquered Death.
It could've been his courage, hope or even ignorance o the severity of disease............. But he had no fear......Even if he had any, it surely didn't show. And what is still more unbelievable is that seeing his fearlesness and optimism, so many other patients who came in contact with him, benefited.
I am sure if the disease has killed him, he still lives in the lives of all he came across.
He surely does in mine..........And will always reverberate my soul with his hearty laughter wishing me each time I entered the ward.
Maybe people are right........ Oh Yes, They are............It's the life in the years that really matters.