I have a friend whose husband just walked away with a younger lady; she felt so bad that she nearly went into depression.
She has a bottle of aspirin on the shelf in her bathroom and every time she thinks about what her husband has done, her mind goes to the bottle of aspirin and feels like swallowing all at once to put an end to ‘all this nonsense’ (in her words).
One very hot afternoon she felt so terrible that she walked towards the bathroom to put an end to everything, but suddenly her phone rang. It was one of her cousins coincidentally checking in to see how she was doing. She spoke with her cousin for a while and then got off the phone to continue her walk towards the bathroom.
The phone rang again. This time it was one of her friends calling out of the blues, to see how she was coping. She lied that she was fine and that everything was okay. After putting down the phone she continued walking towards her bathroom; surprisingly the phone rang the third time. It was her longtime classmate who hadn’t called in years that just decided to call and gist with her.
[bctt tweet=”It is very important to check on one another, especially as we advance in our aging journey. Make that phone call. Visit that friend, neighbour or family member. You might just save a life.”]
When she hung up the third time, she realized that after those three phone calls she felt a lot better because her cousin and two friends had made her laugh so much that she forgot that she wanted to end it all. Those three phone calls saved her life and since then she has never attempted to take her life again.
The lesson that we should learn from this story is that we must take time to check on one another, say hello and see how each and every one of us is doing. We must have each other’s best interests at heart. This is especially important on our aging journey when all the children have moved on to live their own lives.
