Thursday, August 03, 2006

Tenuous Grasp

I have just got back from one of the companies where I teach English. The last lesson was with a bloke, Tony, whom I have been teaching for years.

He got a new colleague a month ago... a 31-year-old father of two young kids. Tony was off last Monday and he phoned in the afternoon to check that everything was ok with his colleague...

"Yes, everything's ok ...see you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow..."

The new colleague went home at 4 ...had dinner, played with his kids until it was time for them to go to bed. Apparently he always went into the children's bedroom with them and lay down on the floor next to the bed while they settled down and went off to sleep - he didn't like them to go to sleep alone. So on Monday evening he lay down on the floor as usual and reached out to hold his young daughter's hand as she drifted off.

His wife looked in after an hour and she saw they were all asleep ...that often happened!

A couple of hours later she thought she'd better check again ...Thomas would be awake all night if he slept so long now.

When she went back in the children's room, Thomas was still lying there, still holding his little daughter's hand but he was stone dead.

Heart attack ...31 ...never ill in his life.

What a tenuous grasp we have on this slippery thread of life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Life is fragile.
Hence I try to live each day to its fullest and appreciate those around me.

Anji said...

I really thought you were going to tell a joke there. What a shock for his family.