You have been my friend.

 “You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die.” Charlotte the spider said to Wilbur the pig at the end of the movie. This quote is taken from “As Time goes By” by Ronni Bennett. Ronni writes about the ups and downs and overall joy of ageing. She is now writing about the challenges she is facing as she fights cancer.

For now, she is winning but cancer is slowly overtaking her and she talks about her upcoming death in a brilliant, loving, sometimes with humour, sometimes with pain but her writing deals with the practical and mundane issues she is facing.. A must-read for those of you with chronic or terminal illness or who are dealing with those you love who have a chronic or terminal illness.

The quote she used talks to me about friendship and how important it is for all of us. We live, two words that are filled with meaning and which have a different meaning for each of us. What does it mean to you lived? What does it mean to those around you because you live? When you retire, you can look back over the path that you chose, and you can reflect on what it means to you, but you cannot really understand what you have meant to countless others as you moved through your journey.

In life you have friends and as Charlotte says, “That in itself is a tremendous thing.” Friends support each other, they like each other, they give meaning to each other's life. Some of us categorize our friends as work-friends, best friends, sports friends, casual friends, long-distance friends, weekend friends, etc. Each of these people you call a friend and who call you friend, shape your life and when it is time for you or them to go, sadness will be felt. As we live, we affect others and when we die we hope our influence continues.