Dead at 44....

[Mick Mac]

I have a friend of a friend who died last week at age only 44 from a heart attack. He smoked and drank a bit too much but still that's unusually young.

Made me think though at age 42 that you can take nothing for granted.

An early death of someone you know makes you feel unusually mortal.

[daizie]

Too right .

Im amazed im still here :)

[Mick Mac]

Hang in there Daizie.

[bigbadwolf]

It's funny that you've brought this up Mick.

My great grandad fought in the trenches on the western front for three and a half years and was at Ypres and through out the entire first world war he didn't suffer so much as a scratch. No illness and no wounds. He had to eat corned beef every day.

He lived to the ripe old age of 98 and died whilst eating a corned beef sandwich.

Aint that a bitch. I'm not messing around either and I find the whole thing very ironic.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

You'll be amazed Mick how many people get phased and upset at the most trivial,unimportant things until they start to lose their loved ones and only then does everything get put into perspective.

Suddenly all those everyday irritations are completely irrelevant and meaningless.

Sadly "some" people have to get to that stage before they learn to take things in their stride.

[giggirl]

When I was 32 I was on life support at Kings for two weeks and wasn't expected to live. One of the best things that ever happened to me.

[bigbadwolf]

A few years ago we had a large bird build a nest next to the motor for the hoist (cage that transports men and materials). We were 16 floors up and I was perched on the scaffolding with a couple of others prodding at it with a crowbar. I lost my footing on the scaffolding and plunged a couple of floors until my arrestor harness kicked in and the bungee rope deployed breaking my fall.

I thought I was a goner for a second. The arrestor harness cut into my thighs like cheese wire and it was excrutiatingly painful. I also had to go through an arduous H.S.E investigation and I had to replace my walkie talkie out of my own pocket.

Still, something to tell the grandkids I suppose.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

bigbadwolf Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> A few years ago we had a large bird build a nest

> next to the motor for the hoist (cage that

> transports men and materials). We were 16 floors

> up and I was perched on the scaffolding with a

> couple of others prodding at it with a crowbar. I

> lost my footing on the scaffolding and plunged a

> couple of floors until my arrestor harness kicked

> in and the bungee rope deployed breaking my fall.

>

> I thought I was a goner for a second. The arrestor

> harness cut into my thighs like cheese wire and it

> was excrutiatingly painful. I also had to go

> through an arduous H.S.E investigation and I had

> to replace my walkie talkie out of my own pocket.

>

> Still, something to tell the grandkids I suppose.

So did the bird complete its nest and what happened to it afterwards?

Do you still keep in touch?

[KalamityKel]

That'll certainly teach ya for bugging a poor bird (the type that flies, eats worms/bugs and lays eggs)

Shame on u wolf*!

MM I've learnt from an early age to live the life you've got as it is certainly too short. When u lose someone close to your own age it does indeed wake ya up a little.

[JetSetWilly]

and then there,s shane mcgowan. makes you wonder.

[Jeremy]

I knew a guy who died aged 25... heart just stopped while he was sleeping. He drank too much, ate bad food, probably took too many drugs... but even so, you don't expect it at that age. That was a big wake-up call for me.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

...awakens one to their own mortality and brings home the fragility of life....

[Nero]

Trying to be all zenly reformed after having faced a tragedy is difficult if not impossible. By attempting to count your blessings and be nice and kind and gentle at all times you'll just end up doing yourself an emotional injury. Don't expect that you'll keep those beatitudes in mind from now till you pass away yourself. It simply won't happen without superhuman effort and near-constant frustration. Be sad at the loss, think about life more, but don't try to turn yourself into a Dalai Lama/Joanna Lumley hybrid. (Blondes can't wear saffron.)

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Nero Wrote:

Don't expect that you'll keep those beatitudes in mind from now till you pass away yourself.

Everyones entitled to their response to this emotive subject, but there's some who won't like your Beattitude Nero....

[daizie]

I dont agree Nero, I think your getting excited here . A natural change occurs in those affected . 'Trying' doesn't even come into it .

You say ' zenly reformed, emotional injury, superhuman effort, near-constant frustration, Dalai Lama/Joanna Lumley hybrid' . This is another example of someone completely missing the point and thinking to the absurd end of extreme .

[bigbadwolf]

"That'll certainly teach ya for bugging a poor bird (the type that flies, eats worms/bugs and lays eggs). Shame on u wolf*!"

I wasn't doing it for my own entertainment although I can forgive you for thinking otherwise Kel. The motor for the hoist can get very hot after lifting the kind of weight it does over the course of the day. It may seem like a good idea for a bird to build a nest in a warm spot like this but you should see the mess we have to deal with if we don't evict them. I'm not joking when I say that the chicks are usually cooked alive.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Sounds like you don't keep in touch with this bird, Wolfster...

[bigbadwolf]

"Sounds like you don't keep in touch with this bird, Wolfster..."

No Tony. I'm not in the habit of dating winged mammals. We all know you like a bit of Blackbird though eh Tony, you old rascal.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

bigbadwolf Wrote:

No Tony. I'm not in the habit of dating winged mammals. We all know you like a bit of Blackbird though eh Tony, you old rascal.

Incredibly appropriate for this thread BBW, I'm afraid.

My Jamaican friend, who lives with me, was telling me again only last night, about the profound effect losing her second nephew ( out of 3) to a Gunman in Jamaica has had on her.

She has 2 Sisters, the first of which lost her Son to a 16-year-old and the second Sister lost one of her 2 Boys to a 15-year-old who pumped 16 shots into the deceased.

These events have changed her life and her, considerably, as she is much more mellow and reflective now.

Edited to say that both boys were just 17 years old...

[silverfox]

Glad to hear it bigbadwolf. The only winged mammals I can think of are bats and maybe those tree foxes who have wing-like skin to help them glide between trees. Platypuses are mammals that lay eggs but they don't have wings.

[Brendan]

Echidnas lay eggs too.

I don?t know of anyone who has been killed by an echidna.

[Huguenot]

Echidna was almost genocidal, you name a baddie, and they sprung from her fowl* loins...

"a daughter of Tartarus and Ge (Apollod. ii. 1. ? 2), or of Chrysaor and Callirrho? (Hesiod. Theog. 295), and according to others again, of Peiras and Styx. (Paus. viii. 18. ? 1.) Echidna was a monster, half maiden and half serpent, with black eyes, fearful and bloodthirsty. She was the destruction of man, and became by Typhon the mother of the Chimaera, of the many-headed dog Orthus, of the hundred-headed dragon who guarded the apples of the Hesperides, of the Colchian dragon, of the Sphinx, Cerberus, Scylla, Gorgon, the Lernaean Hydra, of the eagle which consumed the liver of Prometheus, and of the Nemean lion. (Hes. Theog. 307, &c.; Apollod. ii. 3. ? 1, 5. ?? 10, 11, iii. 5. ? 8; Hygin. Fab. Praef. p. 3, and Fab. 151.) She was killed in her sleep by Argus Panoptes. (Apollod. ii. 1. ? 2.) According to Hesiod she lived with Typhon in a cave in the country of the Arimi, whereas the Greeks on the Euxine conceived her to have lived in Scythia."

*see that egg laying reference?

[Tony.London Suburbs]

I wish I had never seen this thread as this has just happened in my local Marine Shop.

I enter and ask "Where's Brian?".

"Dead!"...went into hospital for a hernia op. and, apparently, they gave him the wrong medicine ( I'm told) and he never came round.

Same age as me (55) and like most Sarf Londoners he moved out from Bermondsey 20+ years ago, so we had much in common.

Fit as a fiddle when I last saw him 5 months ago.

n.b. Lesson about "Don't judge a book by its cover" as well.

When I first met him I thought he was the most obnoxious and rude Shopowner that I'd met after I asked him about an "incident" near his shop. I got the proverbial "flea in my ear" as,I later found out I was the 100th person that day to ask him! and not buy anything. Got to know him and told him what I originally thought of him and he said "What do you expect? The road was blocked off, I took no Business and yet hundreds came in, only to ask what had occurred!".

We got on well after that and now he has gone so suddenly.

[Jah Lush]

Sorry to hear your sad news Mick. I had a friend who died on Friday also of a heart attack at just 52. I had a girlfriend who died of a heart attack at just 37 eleven years ago so I guess it's not too unusual. I've lost a lot of friends over the years who all died far too young, some were still only in their 20s.

[Mick Mac]

That's very sad Jah, my condolences. You seem to have been very unfortunate. Look after yourself.