Worst than Death itself!By Fred C. Amora
November 5, 2006 The Bohol Standard
The Fear of Dying is worst than Death itself!
Indeed it is true and I have seen its chilling effects on many people who seemed not able to accept that Death is the end of everything and no one is an exception.
*****
On All Souls Day, I had the rare opportunity of going back to my hometown and be with my childhood buddies, reminiscing the old good times we had.
I was told of the story of a smart classmate who worked as a policeman and was known as a womanizer and a good money maker.
He spent his days in a glorious blaze of wine and women, and dining till his heart’s content.
Friends told him to go slow and reminded him on the ill-effects of lechon, cigarettes and liquor.
That smart classmate simply laughs off all the admonitions and said “let’s dine and be merry for tomorrow we die.â€
He sounded pragmatic and people thought the guy was indeed smart.
But later saddled with a lingering liver failure, he changed tune.
It was then that he recovered memory of his long-abandoned family, wife and children.
He started looking for them, pleading for their care and attention.
Everything he accumulated during his heydays was all disposed to cover medical expenses in a futile effort to prolong his life.
The brave front gave way as he hanged on to dear life up to the last minute; gasping for breath through a plastic tube connected to an oxygen tank by his bedside.
*****
True brave hearts put up no front when faced with death.
In 1803, Irish patriot Robert Emmet was condemned to death.
He gave this address before the court.
“I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world; it is—the charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph....let me rest in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, and my memory in oblivion, until other times and other men can do justice to my character.â€
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