Derek K. Miller wrote the following back in 2007. He knew then he was dying of cancer, but the end would not come until May 2011. His blog contains a bunch of honest writing about his disease, his treatments, but most importantly, his thoughts about living and dying. I'm still exploring from his home page, and you'd enjoy it too ("enjoy" isn't quite the right word, but I think you know what I mean):
My meaning, comfort, and wonder come from another place, from trying to understand people, creatures, life, the planet, the galaxy, the universe, and their amazing diversity from my miniscule perspective as a man living in the 20th and 21st centuries here on earth. From trying to be a good person, a good husband and father.
What will outlive me is not my soul, because I don't think I have one. But my children will outlast me. Their children, if they have them, will too. As will, perhaps, some of my words and ideas, like the ones written here. Anything that persists of me-besides the molecules that used to make up my body-will be in the memories of others, or in their genes (another type of memory). That might not be much, and it won't be up to me to decide what that includes.
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