In the last week, several “young” deaths made headlines. Hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, ages 31 and 29 respectively, lost their lives to a drunk driver. Hiphop artist Fatman Scoop (Isaac Freeman III), 53, died after collapsing on stage. Olympic wrestler Michelle Fazzari died of cancer at 37. We are sure none of them expected their last day would be their last day.
Sudden death is something the famous share with the unknowns. Check your local newspaper’s obituary section and you will find an impossibly young person listed there, or an obituary noting the death was “sudden,” “unexpected,” or “tragic.”
College, Olympic, World, and Stanley Cup champion hockey coach, Badger Bob Johnson, himself unexpectedly dead at 60, said “Every day is a bonus.” If we tried to link to every Uplift post or Moment of Motivation meme that we’ve published with the sentiment of every day is a gift, we would publish the longest post yet! But all those words do not make as much impact as one “suddenly” in a young person’s obituary.
On the other hand, Maria Branyas Morera died on August 20 at the age of 117 years, 6 months, and 24 days, leaving five people older than 115 years of age still alive. It is estimated that there are more than half a million centenians in the world, nearly 90,000 in the United States, and over 300 supercentenians (over 110 years old) worldwide. These are people who appreciate the daily gift of a new day. Longevity researchers Héctor García and Francesc Miralles wrote of the supercentenians, “They aren’t superheroes, but we could see them as such for having spent far more time on this planet than the average life expectancy would predict A healthy and purposeful life could help us join their ranks.”
What do the tragically dead too soon and the life-fulfilled oldest among us have in common? It could be that purposeful life and healthy outlook. The young are still striving living life as fully as possible, the old have found the key to living life as fully as possible.
A word that was used often last week describing Johnny Gaudreau was fun. When he was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2011, he was asked what he would do if they told him they were not going to pay him. His answer was, “But I can still play, right?”
María Capovilla who lived to within one month of her 117th birthday said in one of her last interviews at age 107, “I like the waltz, and can still dance it.” She went on to say she danced often and still did the many things she did in her youth.
Walter Breuning, who at the time of his death at 114 was the world’s oldest man, said in a 2010 interview with the Associated Press, “We’re all going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die.” At 16, he lied about his age so he could get a job with the Great Northern Railway where he worked until his retirement at age 67 but then continued to work as manager and secretary of his local Shriners until he turned 99.
Ranked second in the world in her weight class, former Olympic wrestler Michelle Fazzari was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the spring of 2021, shortly before her 34th birthday. Over the next 3 years the cancer had spread to her lungs, and thyroid. Shortly after an additional diagnosis of a brain tumor, she was described at an interview with the Hamilton (Canada) Spectator as “upbeat, fun and enthusiastic … a one-woman jolt of inspiration wrapped in a complete dearth of self-pity.” She died 10 months later.
We made it past 37 and even 50, but we don’t know that we will live to see 100 or 110. We don’t even know that we will live to see the end of today. That is a stark and sobering thought. It is relatively easy to say nobody knows if there will be a tomorrow. The message rings louder and clearer when you consider we don’t know if there will be a tonight. Every hour, every moment is a bonus.
Merriam-Webster defines bonus as “something given in addition to what is ordinarily expected.” That is also a perfect definition of life. That we are here at all defies odds and our lives continuing from moment to moment is not something we should expect. We have a choice to make every day that we do wake up. Will it be fun and purposeful or will it be tragic and unexpected. Death is tragic often enough. Don’t make life tragic also.
Every day is a bonus. Treat it like one every day.
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