The death of a great man

My Grandpa passed away Tuesday the 23rd at 2:00am.

I'm so grateful that I had driven down Sunday for an unplanned visit, because I hadn't planned on visiting until Tuesday and it would have been too late. He was in bad shape Sunday, but he knew we were there. We had just visited a few days before, and it's crazy to think he would die so soon. He had battled the lung cancer for so long, to me it seemed like he'd just keep fighting it. When we were there Sunday, I sat in the same room with him and you could see how close to death he was. As I held me newborn daughter and sat across from Grandpa, it struck me how here was new life and death. He lived to see Brooke and hold her. That's very special to me. As I drove away Sunday and headed for home, I turned the radio on and heard the song "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw. I thought how strange and at the same time how appropriate for that song to come on at that particular moment. When Grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer about 3 years ago, he was given 6 months to live. All the trips and things that my grandparents wanted to do tomorrow, became today. Grandpa continued to live his life but each day was precious. None of us know when our time is up, and lately I've been thinking of changes I want to make in my life so that when my time comes I can say, "I lived a great life."