Death seems to make us re-evaluate our lives

Death seems to make us re-evaluate our lives. Since my daughter's friend, Carly, died so tragically, in a car crash just over a week ago, I think it's got some of us thinking more and more about how fragile life really is and how we sweat the small stuff too much.

For instance, Leyna, asked me to pick up some odds and ends for her holiday in July to Magaluf, she didn't have the heart to go herself as she is still in the middle of her studies for her A Levels and in the aftermath of the sad news as she was so close to Carly.

Carly was due to go on this holiday with Leyna and a few other girls who would have been celebrating the fact their exams were over. She had a bright future and would have gone to Bristol University in October. She wanted to be an accountant.

Carly, like a lot of the other girls had taken a part-time job to save money for this holiday. She hadn't spent any of it, just wanted to save so she could have a great time on holiday. Now that isn't going to happen. So when I came home from shopping and gave Leyna some of the items I had bought for her, she tried the clothes on: shorts, t-shirts, etc. "I'm going to wear this right now", she said to me, sporting a turquoise t-shirt that I could well imagine will be one of her favourites on holiday, worn with a golden tan. "Why don't you keep it for the holiday?" I suggested. This is what I am prone to do myself with new clothes, keeping them for best. "No, after what happened to Carly, I'm wearing this now when I go out," she firmly replied.

Was her attitude right? I think it was. My own grandmother kept so many things for best. She came from that generation who saved up for a rainy day. She lived through the war years after all. But it was sad that when she died she had left behind so many things that were never used, still in packaging. Scent that would definitely have gone off with age, for instance. To me, that is an even bigger waste.

We need to make the most of what we have right now not wait for sometime in the future for things to happen to us, chances are they won't. My grandmother never had that bungalow by the sea she always dreamed of. It wasn't that she didn't have the money to buy it either. I believe we shouldn't wait for things to fall into our laps, or wait until the time is right, the time may never be right. We may not have the time if our lives are cruelly taken away from us like Carly's was.If you are putting off something, ask yourself why and what would happen if somehow you knew you only had a year left to live? Would you do it? Would you do it right now?