One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. - Henry Miller
Tomorrow Dave and I will get on a ship at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale and cruise up the east coast. Our first stop will be Charleston, South Carolina. Our last will be Montreal, where we'll stay for a few days.
It will be fun, as usual, to see places I've never seen and even possibly do things I've never done - but, for me, the best part is meeting people from different parts of the world. One of the good things about cruising is that we don't have to spend days in a car or check in and out of hotels. We're on a floating hotel with the same guests every day so there are loads of chances for good conversations.
Thirteen years ago I was on a cruise with my husband, Ken. He was very ill and rarely left our cabin except to go to dialysis on the ship. One afternoon, I got on a tender to visit one of the islands in the Caribbean. A woman with a heavy German accent, whom I did not know, sat next to me. She said:
It's a painless death, you know. Pardon me?
When your husband dies, it will be pleasant. When his kidneys fail and dialysis no longer works, toxins will fill his body. But it's a pleasant experience.
We talked some more and then the tender reached the island, we got off and I never saw her again. But I never forgot her words. And three years later, when I knew the end was near, I thought about those words every night before going to sleep.
There are wise people everywhere.
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