When I was about seven years old, my father took me to the local funeral parlour, as he wanted to pay his respects to an old work colleague who’d recently died.
This was a man I’d never met but it was important to my father and he thought it would be a good life experience for me to accompany him.
As we waited our turn to view the open casket, I sat quietly in a corner, waiting for the time to pass.
Suddenly, the door to the Chapel of Rest opened and an elderly man I’d never met came out and, as he did so, he smiled at me and said, “Make sure you enjoy your life son. Be happy because it’ll all go by in the blink of an eye. Look at me, I didn’t and now it’s too late.”
With that, the man disappeared through the door onto the street and it was our turn to view the body and pay our respects.
We walked solemnly into the Chapel of Rest and I looked into the open casket.
I was horrified. I couldn’t believe it. The body in the casket was the man who’d just spoken to me.
Well, I was utterly traumatized by the experience. I had nightmares and I was terrified to be alone. I couldn’t sleep without the light on for several years.
It got so bad I had to go for psychotherapy and counselling.
As I got older, gradually I began to cope a bit better, until one day I discovered something that completely changed my life.
I learned that my father’s dead colleague had an identical twin brother.