The Last Time

The Last Time

Good friends are like special treasures. The enrich one’s life immeasurable, and I believe it’s important to let them know this.

One day I started thinking about how I would have reacted were I to have known that something I was doing was to be the last time I’d ever do it. How would I have played that last stickball game, taken the last roller skate ride down the street, played football and baseball and boxball, raced my friends to the corner and back, ate that orange fudgesicles, sledded down the hill, raced the bike into Upper Darby, chased the girls across the schoolyard, eaten a double order of French fries with gravy on them, gone to a Saturday matinee with my friends, and all the hundreds of other things that are gone from our lives before we even realize it.

Carry it a step further. What about all the things I do now that one day will also be for the last time? And what about all those special people in our lives who leave us before we get the opportunity to tell them exactly how we feel about them? God, I wish I had told so many of my aunts and uncles how much I truly loved them.

If we know it was to be the last time for anything or anyone, we would live our lives with much more fervor, determination and will, and with much more love and appreciation for those around us. I decided that even if I had neglected to do it in the past. I could make certain not to continue making the same mistake in my future.

~~David Brenner from “Soft Pretzels with Mustard”