On the death of a friend's parent ...

A dear friend's father died.

He had seen a thousand moons, and a couple more.

A death is also a reminder to the rest of us to make the best of the moments that remain in our own lives.

Any death serves as an opportunity for us to re-think our own priorities. In this case, because it was a parent who died, one way to re-think our priorities is to carefully weigh whether do set aside enough time to visit with the parents.

In this context, I am reminded of a post that is not even a month old:

this piece at Slate: It is "a calculator to to tell you how many times you'll see your parents before they die."
The site seeyourfolks.com is to nudge us about this very issue:

We believe that increasing awareness of death can help us to make the most of our lives. The right kind of reminders can help us to focus on what matters, and perhaps make us better people.

When we realize there is only a limited amount of time, we are then able to easily rank some as important and others are not worth even a tiny second of our lives.  

Before death happens.  

I know it will--the friend's father's demise is a reminder that soon it will be our turn.

I owe the friend's father for this reminder.