‘Over the hill’ beats under it

Each morning I read the Tributes column in The Vindicator. Some days it is a very rude awakening.

The number of World War II veterans biting the dust this year is shocking. One day I counted seven World War II vets.

Life is fragile and tenuous. My wife Margaret died at age 78 in 2005. Her parting words to me were “We all have to die.”

Many years ago at my uncle’s funeral Mass, a priest gave a most memorable homily. He said, “If we knew how and when we were going to die, life would be unbearable.”

A lot of ups and downs

Life is full of hills and valleys and joys and sorrows. A friend, Mrs. Joanne Collier, likes the saying, “The elderly have one foot on a banana peel and the other in a grave.” While Mrs. Pat Almasy came up with a thought that was new to me. “You can take it with you,” she suggests, as opposed to the more familiar, “You can’t take it with you” — because the cost of a funeral is in the thousands.

As an octogenarian, I’m asked by many people, “How are you doing?” My standard reply, “I can’t kick.” In reality, it should be, “I can kick.”

No one is getting out of this alive, even if you are a trillionaire, nor can anyone buy a ticket to heaven. Death levels the playing field.

My all time favorite adage attributed to the Amish is, “Life is too short, and death is too long.” You can say that again.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and an inductee into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.