This was a crazy week. With Hurricane Sandy images everywhere, Halloween coinciding with a full moon, and too many evening commitments after my nine hour work day, the one thing I did look forward to was my friend Duane’s birthday party. https://lizbeth.wpengine.com/2012/09/tuesdays-with-duane-and-teachings-from.html

Visiting Duane has been the highlight of my week for quite a while now, so I wanted this birthday to be everything he wanted.

Pumpkin pie with chocolate ice cream?( Blech!)  Sure!  A singing gram from Fiverr.com sent to his home computer? Fun! Mexican food from East Anchorage’s Hacienda restaurant? Why not?

Life is short, and he’s so grateful for every day that he lives. He deserves a surprise.

His birthday was on Wednesday, but the surprise was on me. Tuesday, Duane died.

Like me, Duane loved true stories with happy endings. I found two short ones to share this week that begged the question:

When is it time to give up on finding a lost loved one?

When fifteen year-old Thomas Beck scaled a wall in a Budapest Nazi Concentration Camp in 1944, he left behind the love of his young life. Fourteen year-old Edith Greiman’s image stayed with him a long time. Through his childhood and young adulthood. Past his marriage, and even after retirement.
Beck lived his life with gratitude and attitude.

“Being locked up in Nazi Germany, what else can happen?”

It wasn’t until making a documentary about the experiences of his youth that he learned Edith was still alive and recently widowed.

Four years later, they still take nothing for granted. “We are more than happy,” Edith has said about their life together during interviews.


More than happy
. What a great statement.

Thousands of miles away, Cambodians are finally getting help finding their loved ones.  The Los Angeles Times reported that a TV show called It’s Not a Dream receives more than 50 calls a day from Cambodians separated from their families after the Communist government of the Khmer Rouge attempted to separate nuclear families, considering them to be a stronghold of capitalism.

Heng Vicheka reunited with his parents recently after being separated from his family as a little boy in 1993.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-st-cambodia-its-not-a-dream-reality-show-20121104,0,5962955.story

When his parents joined him on the stage, he showed them the ultimate respect by removing his shoes. His mother cried and promised to show her gratitude to the gods by shaving her head.

When is it too late to reunite with your missing loved ones?

If you’re still alive, you’ve still got time. Life is fleeting, and we all deserve to know what it is to be more than happy.

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