That plaintively sighing old phrase that "Life is too short" must surely have repeated throughout humankind's introspective memory more often than any other. But only by the elderly, never by the young, who feel they are impervious to any thunderbolts of mortal disaster, all reserved for the old. Never imagining, needless to say, that they will be among the old, before too long. Before too long in the sense that though a lifetime stretching before someone in their youth appears like time enough, it is a period of time that telescopes rapidly into the future.

And then that universal plaint is echoed and re-echoed by each succeeding cadre of the old whose time is rapidly dwindling. Some waggish types among them fondly exclaim how unfair it is that youth is wasted on the young. In the sense, of course, that while people are young they never quite appreciate sufficiently, in the minds of the old, how fortunate they are to be living in that moment. A veritable moment in time.

Quite a few years ago, during one of the semi-annual visits of our oldest son and daughter-in-law, staying with us for a week or so, often to re-connect with friends in Ottawa as much as to see us, they invited a friend we hadn't before met over for dinner, at our encouragement. This was a young man recently enough graduated from university and successful in being hired as a new foreign affairs officer by the-then federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which was called External Affairs when my husband was with them, and latterly re-named to Global Affairs.

This was an affable young man, not yet married and somewhat excited that he was headed toward a diplomatic career. We spent a pleasant evening together, the five of us gathered at the dinner table and later sitting around the living room chatting. My husband filled the young man in on his own experiences with the department, his impressions and his advice. Our son and daughter-in-law's relationship with the young man dipped when he married, neither of them thinking much of his wife, unfortunately.

Yesterday our son informed his father that he had received an email, short and to the point, informing that his old friend had died suddenly. With no further explanatory details. Life certainly is short, often unexpectedly so. Which is ample reason to appreciate it while and when we can, making the most of what we have, and cherishing those who mean so much to us.