This guy used to come into my local years ago on his own and talk to everyone. He was a friendly enough older guy, had a few drinks and went home to his partner.
We got talking about hot sauces and he said he made his own. Me and another local said we’d love to try some so he brought some in. It was really good! Sweet and very spicy. He eventually bought us both in huge bottles of the stuff. I was incredibly grateful for it.
We’d noticed that he was looking well and asked him if he was ok. “Yeah fine, I’m good” was always the response. You could see he wasn’t. He stopped coming in for a few months and we got worried, another regular had him on Facebook so checked up on him and and everything was ok. Shortly after he started coming back in.
Whenever he came in he’d have a soft drink and just chat. We’d ask him how he was and “yeah fine, I’m good”. We didn’t know it at the time but that would be the last time we’d see him. A few weeks later we found out he’d died. He’d been terminally ill and just wanted to enjoy what time he had left and that included chatting with us in a random bar.
I often look at the chilli sauce in the fridge and wonder about my own mortality, I wonder what my contribution to society is, what will people remember (if anything) of me? I’m not even sure it matters to others but it does to me.