HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT I LOVE YOU

Yes it is a song-----but you will get the point.


I was 16 years old when I was woken by my Grandmother yelling at the back gate---I brought her into the house before running up to her home to find my Grandfather dead on the floor. My Grandmother died two years later.
They were both in their eighties and not in good health ----- I dont ever remember telling them that I loved them even though I had spent all of my life seeing them on a daily basis.
I didnt cry at their funerals and I really havent ever missed them----I guess I thought their time was up----my paternal Grandparent died before I was 2 so I remember nothing of them.

My only brother and I were great mates til girls came on the scene---then he didnt want his little brother hanging around. But he supported me in everything I ever did.
When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the arse fell out of my world.
He was at home til three days before he died and we would talk the night away.
He was on morphine for the pain, so I would dose him up in the mornings before I went to work so that he was comfortable and slept most of the day in the care of my parents but only enough to take the edge off at night because he wanted to talk. The things we told each other fade as time goes by but I will forever remember the tears in his morphine clouded eyes when I told him that I loved him---I told him that he was my hero and that I would miss him til the day I died---and I still miss him and I still get very misty thinking about our night time talks.
I was with him when he slipped ito a coma but I still talked to him and kept telling him that I loved him------I was with him in the hospital 10 minutes before he slipped away and I told him again and told him it was OK if he needed to go now.

My heart sank when the phone rang---I had just got through the door, but I knew---
And then I had to hold my Mum and tell her that the son who had lived with her for 44years had just died.
That is he first time that I can remember telling my parents that I loved them----how must they have felt----your children are not supposed to die before you do.
My Dad was just stunned---he had blamed himself because the cancer was hereditary---he had survived two cancer operations in ten years.

From then on, I told my parents that I loved them as often as I thought I should---I think it almost made my Dad uncomfortable because he wasnt a touchy feely bloke--I dont think that there was much love in his family.

I lost my Dad before he died---dementia took him away----I visited him every day in a nursing home----he was happy but I was sad that it was no longer my dad---I got no reaction but I still told him that I loved him.
I'm sad to say that it was almost a blessing when he died----I was with him and said goodbye and told him that I loved him.

Mum and I were great friends and her health was reasonable til she slipped into a coma after a short illness----she came back(apparantley due to being off her regular medications and now on morphine) for about 30 minutes---I'm lucky, I was there with her.
She asked if she was dying and who was I to lie to my mother---she checked that I had everything ready and that I would be alright----told me that she loved me and slipped back to her sleep----
I held her hand and talked to her in many visits over the next three days and always left her teling her that I loved her------
I knew that she wouldnt last that night and that phone call came.

I dont think that I could have got past losing any of them without knowing that they loved me and without me telling them that I loved them.

You never know when you are going to lose someone, so dont have that regret that you never got to tell them

Do it now---do it when you leave for work in the morning----do it before you go to sleep at night-----end your phone calls with it

TELL THEM THAT YOU LOVE THEM

"Hey, are blokes supposed to cry"
"Yes Clyde, if they have feelings"
"So I'm just showing my feelings then"
"Yes Clyde, and you are not frightened to show them"
"No, I dont mind people knowing how I feel"
"Good, now pour me another Bourbon"

Thank you Rod Stewart