We went to Peter Morrisey’s funeral this morning Peter was 59 and died from a brain tumor. Yesterday afternoon we went to Ray Murphy’s wake. Ray was 86 and died of congestive heart failure. They never knew each other and I didn’t know either of them very well. But, I knew them both well enough to experience the one thing they had in common: they each had a dynamic view of life that greeted each day as a wonderful opportunity to live… to experience life to it’s very fullest… to live with gusto… to experience the joy and wonder of creation as it opened itself to them.
These are two men who didn’t die they just stopped living as the mechanism of their mortal clocks ran down and stopped ticking. For each of these men life was an adventure They engaged their lives each day as well as the people they encountered on their journeys.
One of the eulogist’s at Peter’s funeral said that Peter openly and genuinely treated you as his best friend he engaged with the people he met rather than treating them as a perfunctory acquaintance or a bother to move on from.
We had met Ray when he was in his. Late 80s and on a cruise to Bermuda. Full of life, he too was engaging warm and welcoming when he met you; he shared himself fully for the time you we’re together…no reserve…no polite façade. When you were with Ray… you were with Ray he was open to you to the fullest And as with Peter, Ray invited you to be fully alive with him at the moment that you were together.
I remember running into Peter a couple of years ago on Charles Street in Boston as he was coming out of his office and getting ready to bike home to Weston. He greeted me as his eulogist had said as if I were his best friend, showing no anxiety to begin his trek home,and talking with my wife and myself as if we were having a prearranged meeting.
Both of these men shared the gift of their lives with the people they met on their journeys and all of us who knew them are better off because of that.
Sent from my iPhone