I would like to share a personal experience with you that gave me a different outlook on life, and on death, and hopefully made me better able to help other people cope with their loss and pain; I left home to come to work in Dublin when I was just 18 years old
I was staying in digs, I was very lonely and home sick and I knew no one.
A few weeks later I contracted pleurisy, I remember lying in the bed one night and I was convinced I was going to die, I was quiet prepared to go, no problem, my only concern and worry that night was, how my Mother would feel when she got the news.
I remember been invited to take part in a Late Late Show Special on bereavement when Gay Byrne was doing it and it went out on a Saturday night. I told that story.
Coming out of Mass the next morning, a mum who had just lost her son in a tragic accident, called me one side and asked to talk to me .she said “ I saw you on the Late Late Show last night, was that true what you said “ I assured her it was. She then asked me. “Did I think her son thought that way just before he died? I assured her in my experience he probably did and he would not want her to worry.
She seemed to get great comfort from our conversation. If you are suffering pain or loss at this time and you happen to read this I hope that you will get comfort too.