Uncle Paul calls you on the phone and tells you about his wife who was just taken ill. You get distracted, and tell him to ‘hang on a sec.’ He says: ‘take your time.’ You were 18 at the time.

70 years later, after a life of job hopping, military tours, ups, downs, family duties, hobbies, and the common affairs of life,  you find yourself in a hospital bed; hardly unable to move your right hand, you notice the phone (the one with the cord) is off the hook, and struggle to put it back, but first you put it to your ear and say ‘hello?’

Of course the voice on the other end is uncle Paul who says: ‘I’m here, I waited for you.’ Of course the phone drops immediately to the floor. And in that moment of unannounced honesty but bitter and unvarnished truth, you saw the revelation…