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Ink Out Loud: Tell it like it is

Mandy Feder
Ink Out Loud

Isn’t life so fragile? The day before my 49th birthday I didn’t have time to ponder aging as much as I had time to ponder mortality.

I learned that a really young woman, my daughter’s childhood friend, was dead before she even really lived at all.

A few moments later a former coworker and dear friend called me to tell me she was diagnosed with cancer.



She told me about all the unsolicited advice she was receiving. We laughed and we cried. We made plans to see each other over the weekend.

And yet the world still spins. People go on talking about issues of which they have no control over and little knowledge about.



When death or the threat of it emerges we gather together and say all the good things we should have said before that.

We disarm ourselves of fears, sob, reminisce, and pray. We appreciate the attributes and quirks of the person who can never be replaced.

My best birthday gifts are my family and friends — my two daughters, my granddaughter and a young man I call my son (because his own mother didn’t have the good sense to realize the most brilliant act of her whole life was to bring him into this world).

If you meet me and I unabashedly spill out the wonders about you, it’s only because this life is too short to be too cool not to tell it like it is.

Mandy Feder is the Managing Editor of the Tahoe Daily Tribune. She can be reached at mfeder@tahoedailytribune.com or 530-542-8006.


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