Your dying wish

A few days ago, a group of 15 women arrived in Vilankulos. They were accompanying their close friend N. N has terminal lung cancer, it has spread to her bones. Her last chemotherapy worsened her condition so she decided to stop all treatment. She doesn’t know exactly how much time she has, but she knows she doesn’t have much. Her time is counted in weeks.

One of the things in her bucket list was to come here and ride the horses. She had read about them in ‘One hundred and four horses’ and it was her dream to see them in person as well as to swim in the sea with a horse. Her friends and family, all of them women, have come to support her. 

N is a tall and slim 38 year old. She had long blond hair. She is beautiful. N has two young sons and a loving husband.

One the day that she got to swim with a horse, all her friends came out on the beach to watch her. N looked magical on her grey horse, swimming off the shore. I saw a lot of tears run down her friends’ cheeks as they saw her accomplish her dream. 

After it was all over, they were all walking up the beach heading back to their cottages. N suddenly stopped walking and screamed. ‘I don’t want to die,’ she shouted. ‘I don’t want to die.’ Everyone burst out in tears and fell silent. There was nothing to say, only love to give. 

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It has been a wake up call for all of us to have her around. When I think I can get bogged down with such trivial things in life, I feel ashamed. We can never forget how precious life is and when things get bad, we can say to ourselves ‘if I was going to die next week, how important would this problem really be?’ 

Thank you N for teaching us such a simple lesson.