When life puts your problems into perspective

This morning after dropping my wife off at the hospital where she works and driving to my own office, I encountered some very frustrating traffic issues, something which is hardly unusual for me, but after a very stressful week it was perhaps the penultimate straw and I got quite upset.

I made it to the office safely, and a colleague asked how I was feeling, and I admitted to being rather stressed.

Then I turned on my email and found something which put all my problems into perspective.

At the end of November I met an old friend at a social function. This is someone who went to the same school, and who served on St Albans Council at the same time as I did - and being in different parties never stopped us being friends.

He told me that his mother was receiving end-of-life care. And when  I opened my email this morning I found that she had died yesterday.

There is perhaps nothing in this life as difficult to deal with as the death of a beloved relative and it certainly put my own problems in perspective. I sent Alastair a note of condolences and resolved not to let comparatively trivial things upset me.

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