Why would any one write a blog on Living For Ever?

That’s a good question and I’ll tell you why. Exactly ten years ago my favourite cousin Les asked me this question during one of his visits to my house: ‘How long do you expect to live for?’

To be honest I had never given it any thought. So I reflected on his question briefly and told him that a clairvoyant’s crystal ball once portrayed me at a ripe old age with hair as white as snow. ‘I’ll sign up for that,’ I said, at a time when I still believed in soothsayers.
‘What about you Les?’ I asked.

Les and I had great rapport, which may have had something to do with the fact that we were of the same vintage.

‘Me,’ he said, ‘I’ll be living forever.’

He grinned at me with a smile bigger than the sun, ‘Me,’ he said, whilst poking his finger at his chest, ‘I’ll be living for ever!’

A week later he had taken his own life. I wrote a small article about it in 2005 as part of a feature story on teenage depression, you can read about that below.

The concept of living for ever somehow sounded different to ‘heaven.’

Like most people I had heard about heaven but it was my cousin Les who introduced me to the concept of living for ever. The concept of living for ever somehow sounded different to ‘heaven.’

The passing of my favourite cousin combined with several near death experiences experienced by myself were some of the reasons that prompted me to study living for ever intensely for the next decade.

Les wrote poetry during his lifetime but this particular poem as printed above was artistic licence from the author to fit in with the story and convey Les’ mood on his last visit to his cousin (me). For help with or information on depression visit beyondblue.org.au, the black dog institute, pressonaustralia or phone Lifeline on 131 114.

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