Last Monday I received one of those calls…the ones which come at a funny time of day and it starts by a low deep voice, asking for you by name.
On the other end was a lawyer to a friend of the family. The friend was found dead in his house earlier that day and I am the executor to his Will. If anyone out there has been an executor you know full well what I’ve gone through in the past week.
Funeral arrangements, contacting family members, and the part I had a hard time with… sifting through 80 years of a man’s life.
For many elderly people living alone, they are frequently found passed away several days later. That’s what my brother a police officer for Metro Toronto averred. And this was the case here.
Another task of an executor is to ready the house to sell. So far I’ve filled three large containers of personal belongings. Every time I took a garbage can to the dumpster the clanging of the debris made me think, “there goes another part of his life.”
Three Ps
So Doug the Pilot, my bother the Police officer and my other brother, a Parts manager, are all part of the will.
You’re probably asking what does this have to do with flying.? (Well my last post tied hockey to flying so keep reading).
This event sure made me think just how Precious life is and not to go through life being Petty.
This week I’ve learned such terms as Probate, Power of Attorney, Pension and estate Payouts. The estate lawyer even joked by saying, “Doug it’s much easier flying your plane in your short sleeve shirts than dealing with this.” I concur.
Speaking of short sleeve shirts...
Pathetic. That’s how one pilot described my writing for enRoute. He took a disliking to how I answered this question.
Q: I’ve noticed that Pilots usually wear short-sleeve shirts. Is there a reason for this?
At Air Canada, it’s based on Preference, and for me, I find a short-sleeve shirt more comfortable. Plus, it’s a lot easier to iron! A small Percentage of Pilots Prefer long-sleeve shirts; some switch to long sleeves during the winter months. No matter what, all shirts come with shoulder straps to sport a three-stripe (first officer) or four-stripe (captain) gold-embroidered epaulette. Also, we have a small Pouch in the chest Pocket for a Pen.
He deemed I treated our Profession unProfessional because I inferred pilots can’t iron. Yes, I’m talking about the Piranhas on a Particular forum. I would call this guy a Pr...ck, but I will rise above.
Yesterday I buried the elderly gentleman. Only a handful of People showed. Funny, one arrives in this world with nothing and you leave with nothing. In between, Plan, Prioritize but most importantly Play. Make sure you give it a good run around the track of life.
Last year a Pilot biked across Canada in recognition of a fellow Pilot (he continues to Persevere) stricken with cancer. I bought the Painting on line to Promote the cause. On the Painting it is written:
Our Death is not an end if we can live in our children and the younger generation, For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.
Unfortunately for this man, most of his life ended up in a dumpster.
Sadly, I received an email yesterday stating another fellow pilot died of cancer at the age of 46.
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Procrastinating. This is what I’m doing because I have a PowerPoint Presentation for our new hire pilots on Monday.
Tomorrow I have a Probus Presentation.
Tomorrow night I meet with Priority Passengers, our "elite and super elite" Passengers.
Profound, Provocative and Party.
Sorry for such a deep topic. It's time to Press on. So tonight, I will be Partaking by hoisting one in the celebration of life!
7 comments:
Hi Doug,
I'm sorry about the passing of your friend. I know how tough it is to go through such things however it's good that you have family to support you!
Take care,
Heather
Hi Heather. He was a distant family friend and unfortunately he left this world with few friends.
Now I must gather my stuff to give an hour talk this morning.
Thanks Heather
Juan Carlos. Yes, we must remember life is short so appreciate and enjoy!
My aviation talk went very well and now I'm off to meet about 20 elite/super elite passengers.
And they are buying!
My wife may be getting a call later tonight saying to come pick me up! :)
Thanks
Juan Carlos
Doug, I am sorry for the loss of your friend--- sad when we realize that our life ends up in the garbage. Live life to the fullest. Enjoy every moment. And always find a way to laugh.
And laugh I did at the thought that Pilots can't iron. The truth is, the reason that pilots iron creases in their sleeves has nothing to do with "A military way" but everything to do with they didn't have the correct ironing board to iron the creases out. Thus it became tradition.
Speaking of which, life is too short to waste it ironing. We need iron free shirts, with metal fabric that hides our breasts from TSA scanners ;)
Yes, sounds like she is racking up the air miles.
Speaking of air miles, I met some of the "heavy hitters" at Air Canada last night.
One guy was nearing 2 million air miles!
Hi Karlene. Haven't heard from you on this blog. Welcome!
You made some great points. I still ensure a crease on my sleeve. Albeit it is a short sleeve. :)
And far as the scanners...I guess they have the new body scans up and running at Toronto Pearson.
Should be interesting to see how they treat aircrew.
I'll soon find out. I'm back to work after two weeks off.
Looking forward to wearing my short sleeve pilot shirt and living life to its fullest!
Welcome Karlene
P.S I see you are from KSEA
Doug [O Captain Our Captain]:
New Year's Eve countdown is in a month and a half. But I would guess that for you, it can't arrive fast enough. The last part of 2010 has been very, very unkind to you.
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That quotation. Read it more than once. Very wise, meaningful.
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I've often wondered why some people seem to have 100's of friends, while some have very few. Recently, an answer came to me in the form of another question:
Why do lions live in large groups, while jaguars are usually solitary?
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This poor soul passed on alone, but the fact that he thought to include the Morris brothers in his Last Will and Testament-well, this says much about him, and you...
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