Sad news.  I shudder to think that this is our future, but it is, no one is exempt, we all must depart the company of those we love.  My long-time friend sent out an email this morning that her husband has died.  This very morning.

It was expected.  He was in dreadfully bad shape physically.  My friend wrote in the last month, of their experiences, going off on one of their many jaunts, this time with their daughter and son-in-law, on an Alaska voyage.  And her husband was ill continually.  Staying abed for the most part.  Rarely venturing out on board their passenger ship.  His physical frailty and ill-health more pronounced as days went on. As a well-seasoned traveller he had always enjoyed these outings with his adventure- and experience-seeking wife.

But he has long been under doctors' care, in frail health, even though he was once a robust man.  A police officer, one who attained the rank of police captain, in his day.  In the last week he has collapsed several times.  Each time declaring that he was not prepared to continue as he was, that he was prepared to die, and wanted to die.

And now, this is precisely what he did.  Releasing himself from the surly bonds of a life lived well and for him a trifle too long, with the quality inherent in all life having evaporated precipitously, leaving it entirely bereft of continued value for him.