Read me my Eulogy Now!

I've been waiting a long time now to  craft this entry with perfectly, but that time just doesn't seem to be coming around so I will just get on with it!

Last week, while I was still in the "waiting for the perfect words" period, I got an email from a number of girlfriends sending me virtual flowers and lots of good wishes. The email starts off by saying

"
I would rather have one rose and a kind word from a friend 
while I'm here,
than a whole 
truck load when I'm gone....

...and since this pretty much sums up what I had been thinking all along, I take it as a sign that I am supposed to write it right away, perfectly or not.

Late last year, I celebrated the 50th birthday of a dear cousin (who doesn't look a day older than 20) and one of  the gifts her long-time friend gave her was a reading of her eulogy. I thought that was really sweet and totally appropriate. After all, who wants people to say all the good things about them when they are dead and gone, and all that's left of them is their lifeless body that cannot hear a thing that is being said?

If you have something nice to say about me, say it to me now. If there are things I do that inspire you to be a better person, let me know. If my life's little victories spur you on to greater accomplishments of your own, share that with me. If there is any way I have impacted your life, tell me now. Don't let me go through life thinking that I may never have made a great difference in any one's life or that my life is lived solely for me. Don't let me die not knowing that what I have struggled through has been worth the while because it gave strength to you.

Read me my eulogy now!

And also....I would truly rather have a single rose from you now, than a garden-full of them when I am gone.