There but for the grace...

I'm shocked and sad. We just found out this morning that on Tuesday night we lost someone we know. My friend's brother, a lovely, gentle, fun and funny man who was only fifty years of age, died in hospital, after much suffering, from cirrhosis of the liver. While we weren't exactly close, we'd quite often been out for meals together with my good friend, his sister, and we'd even shared a kitchen and cooked foodie feasts together, so I can't quite believe the news.

And only fifty. That's so damn young - it's younger than me! He was such a vibrant person, with so much love to give and so much more life to enjoy. And now he's gone. My friend is devastated, as you'd imagine. She's gone through a lot of grief over the past few years, one way or another, and now faces this too.

You know, I cannot get it straight in my head. It seems so unfair, but then I guess that's a part of life too. This is horrible, but I just keep coming back to how very, very fortunate I am that this didn't happen to my lovely hubby. It could so easily have been him, as he was diagnosed with NAFLD years back - a precursor to NASH and cirrhosis.

I can't express how grateful I am that, because he lost his weight and changed his lifestyle (oh yes, the low-carb again), the liver function markers for this insidious disease have disappeared and it seems that once again he has a healthy and properly functioning liver. There but for the grace of God.

Look after yourself and your loved ones. Tell them how precious they are to you and encourage them to take care of themselves too.