When people describe what happens in a Near Death Experience, I am riveted. They stretch to wrap words around the wonder, and all encompassing love that awaits each of us. 

One curiosity is the notion of a life review. There seems to be a chance to observe the thread of events over a lifetime. It is similar to home movies, but rather than focusing on how other people treated us, we glimpse how we have impacted them. 

It was my luck to be invited to a retirement party. A nurse who has worked for forty- seven years is hanging up her stethoscope. As a diversion, we tried to unscramble words that pertained to her new stage. Social security, volunteering, and bingo were among the choices. There was also a chance to guess how many patients she served in her career, which were represented by beads in a jar. My guess was twenty-five thousand, but the real answer was twice that many. That is an incredible legacy. 

Later in the day, I sat at the park beside a young mother and her three children. She had a blanket, and a basket packed with their favorite snacks, and a cache of toys. She looked like she had it all together, and I told her as much. 

"Appearances can be deceiving! " she laughed. 

But there was no deception in the sweet way her son held hands with his little sister, walking her closer to the musicians we were there to enjoy. One of which was their father. She wrapped her short arms around his legs, and he kept playing. I bet he smiled and spoke to her. Then they walked back to the blanket. 

That mother, and certainly those children are unaware of the impact they have on oldsters like me. Probably a hundred people in the crowd were charmed to watch them. Multiply that over a childhood and it might just fill a jar with sparkling beads, too.