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Duncan
Our friend Duncan died. It was a Sunday morning, I was coming back from the grocery store and the moment I saw a police car and an ambulance in front of his house, my heart stopped. In a way, I knew it could be only one thing.
Duncan died peacefully, on his bed. A friend came to check up on him, as he wasn’t picking up his (new) phone. It was a sunny day, unusual for March.
Duncan was 95 years old, and his wife had died recently. So in a way, it wasn’t the biggest surprise… except that it was.
I didn’t see it coming, because just two days before it happened, Duncan and I had a chat about the garage extension that he was planning to build. Not at that right moment, but ‘in the next 6–12 months’. He had also recently renovated his bathroom, and had a shower installed instead of the existing bathtub. He bought a new phone earlier that week, that my partner helped him set up. Duncan drove a car. Every day. And he was probably a better driver than I will ever be.
Duncan loved life. He had plans, and he had the energy to achieve them. We had known him only for about seven months before he died, but the lessons he taught us through our daily chats will stick with me forever.
Never stop learning
Duncan wasn’t very keen on technology until he turned 84. That’s when he realised he should figure out how computers…
