She had never struck me as a particularly religious person but she always impressed on me that I should never lose my faith in God. She died alone one night in her home after a long battle with cancer. This time it was my beloved grandmother who was the matriarch of our extended family. Life goes on and things became good again particularly for a young man in the prime of his life and it would be 12 more years before death paid me another visit. It’s only through pure chance that no fire trucks were coming through at that time otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this now! In complete anger and frustration I swung the wheel of the car and I managed to do a complete U-turn on that narrow bridge. Smoke was everywhere and the bridge had been closed to traffic in order to allow access to the fire trucks. There was an occasion during the fire season when I was driving over a narrow one lane each way bridge across a river near to where I lived. Sometimes grief manifests itself as anger at the world in general. My eyes would fill with tears and I would be forced to turn away so that no one would notice. Once again I was devastated at his passing and even 18 months later I would be in a conversation with someone and would suddenly think of him. He and I had become a little estranged over the latter years due to a few differences in opinion but I always loved my father and I am in awe of him even to this day. For months afterwards I couldn’t watch these without bursting into tears with grief over the loss of my grandfather whose name was Stanley.įour years later my father passed away at age 52 years after suffering a long battle with cancer.
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There was a series of commercials on TV at that time about driveway attendants who were all called ‘Stanley’ who would fill up your tank, check your oil and clean your windscreen all as part of the driveway service at petrol stations everywhere. My beloved grandfather who I adored became ill with throat cancer (through smoking) and died leaving me and the rest of our family devastated. It was when I turned 18 though and was part way through my university studies that the true reality and finality of death finally struck home. The idea that we are all mortal and will die someday first began to sink in for me when a family member (who I was not particularly close to) died suddenly when I was about 15 years of age. In today’s language maybe I could have been described back then as the ‘Teflon kid’ because nothing really bad touched me and it didn’t stick long if it did. There have for example been a number of episodes of the television show ‘Star Trek’ which have literally turned around some of my darker moods and encouraged me to forge different directions in life! One such notable episode was called ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ which is widely regarded by many as the best ever Star Trek story.Īs I said before my childhood was very good and this was largely though the efforts of my loving parents. Good science fiction takes the viewer to a different level of thought and puts many of our everyday experiences into a new perspective. Mostly though my experiences with science fiction whether it be in books, television or the movies have been very uplifting and enlightening. I remember as a child being absolutely scared witless by a television show which had the premise that when people died they remained forever conscious in their dead and buried bodies but unable to move or communicate in any way with the outside world! The groundwork for the person that I am today was always there though because I have always had a love for anything to do with science fiction including space travel and particularly time travel. I certainly had no interest in formal religion. As a young person in good health and with the prospect of 70 to 80 years of life to look forward to the idea of life continuing on after death seemed rather foolish and unnecesary to me.