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You can have your tranquil mindset radically altered in a few moments in an unlikely place when you hear folks entertaining conversation on the aggressiveness of the Grim-reaper.
On my way driving home from Dover to Wilmington, DE, I like to stop in Willey’s Farm Produce on US 13 to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for my wife Gwynelle. They have fine big grapes, so I stop to get enough to last over the weekend considering both Gwynelle and I love them. I also picked four juicy oranges.
As I approached the cash out, my mind was focused on going to the filling station just a couple of miles away for it had the best price and service combination I saw in route to Dover. My regular station in Odessa had the same low price but you had to wait in line to get to the pumps, thus if time is money this low price station was a losing proposition.
There were two chaps behind me at the checkout when another cashier opened up. I told them to take my position in the new line because I was going next in the present line. Then one chap said to the other, loud enough for everyone near the cash out stations to overhear, something like, “I hear you all had a rough opening on the new job today.”
At first the speaker’s words commanded little attention. The second chap chimed in, “I had just spoken with that fellow earlier in the morning.” These words demanded that we understand the jest of their conversation.
They shared that a fellow between 61 and 63 years of age dropped dead on the job site this morning. These chaps were visibly shaken even though one fellow acknowledged that he really did not know the dead man.
This grim story poured cold water on my excitement of buying grapes because it made me apprehensive over my own mortality hearing how fast the Grim-reaper strikes; especially, knowing I am older than the man who died. This death revelation was about the last thing I expected to hear in a produce market. However, it brought to mind the adages of expect the unexpected for tomorrow is promised to no one.
