Yesterday, I was roaming around the halls of a hospital. After passing by this one room a few times, an older man yelled at me, “Hey! How are you? Thanks for coming by again!” I said hello back, and from that point on, he would start a conversation whenever I would walk past. I commented on this to a nurse who was passing by, and she said, yes, he does that to all of us. No one comes by to see him; he seems a little lonely. I reflected on that for a few minutes. Here we were to see a family member, and she had a constant flow of people coming in and out to see her at all hours of the day and night. Now, luckily, neither of these patients is in a life-threatening situation; they are both recovering from emergency surgery, and all is going well.
However, this got me thinking. I was reflecting on the importance of surrounding yourself with people that you love and doing your best not to alienate them. As I was typing away on my laptop, writing a few emails that I considered to be really important, a family next to me was going through a crisis. Their wife/mother/grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, and she had just gotten out of surgery. They were hopeful, but I could tell that the prognosis was not the best news. They were all waiting patiently to be told they could go in and see her. In stark contrast to my situation, their loved one was in the last stages of her illness, and any day could be her last. I felt sad for this family, but then I realized how blessed this woman was to have that many people gathered in the waiting room, hopeful to see her. I thought she must be a remarkable woman to have garnered that much love from so many people and for several generations.
I sat there and observed people coming and going. People bring in flowers, and people help their loved ones get onto the elevator for the trip back home. Orderlies, nurses, and doctors all go back and forth, all intent on their jobs. Every single person that passed me by was just like me. We all shared the same fate. Most of us will find ourselves lying in bed, waiting out the last few days and hours before we die. I wonder who will be there when that moment happens. Who will be the ones wishing you well, bringing you flowers, and giving you an awkward hug because they do not want to hurt this frail person lying down connected to monitors and IVs? Unless we befall some unfortunate accident, we will all experience this one ultimate moment. Is this the most important one, I wonder?
Suppose you think about it, after all the great moments. The success, the failure, the births, the ceremonies, the awards, the paychecks, the bonus payments, the vacations, and those intimate moments thing will come down to who is there to say goodbye to you as you part this mortal plane. I sat there and contemplated this uncomfortable thought and, at first, rejected this idea. My life will be more than my death, certainly! However, as I walked back to the room, the old man yelled at me again, “Good to see you again! Thanks for coming by!”
It was at this moment that I wiped a tear from my eye and realized that that final moment was the most precious, whether I liked it or not. Am I living this life in such a manner that people will care when I am spending my last moments in a hospital bed? I sure hope so, and perhaps I should consider this when I plan my days, weeks, and months. As I come up with my goals, objectives, OKRs, business reviews, planning meetings. Perhaps I should make a little room for the loved ones who will be there in those last moments. Will this not be the last and final performance, after all?
Almost as an exclamation point, I saw a family coming into the hospital, heading for a completely different wing. A baby was coming, and this family had all the energy and excitement of this moment that they had been preparing for. It seemed rather appropriate that our society has built these temples that are in every community that we all come to at birth and in death – the hospital. So I got in the car and headed home. I came to visit the hospital to encourage the recovery of a loved one and instead encouraged myself to seek with greater earnest improving the moments that will matter the most in my life.
