What Would You Say?

3:15 a.m.
I am suddenly awake.
My sleep interrupted by a headline I had seen earlier in the evening as I scrolled through my social media feed. The headline was about a doctor who had tell relatives they needed to say their goodbyes to loved ones as they were being admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 because, once admitted, they would not be permitted to visit and there was a good chance their father or mother or sister or brother or child would not survive. How is it that heart and mind would latch onto the headline of an article I did not even read and then wake me up in the middle of the night to think about it?

I lay there for about an hour trying to sleep.
Trying to breath deeply and to relax, but all the while thinking about what I would say if it were me.
Fumbling in the dark for words, I finally decided I would say this.
I love you.
And, my love reaches past and though and around all the wall which may separate us.
Having decided that, I fell asleep.

What would you say if it happened to you?
In that rushed moment you hope you never have?
The doctors and nurses are there in their full protective gear.
Your loved one on a gurney already beginning to be wheeled away.
Through your mask and with tears in your eyes
The last spoken words you get to say which they will hear.
What would you say?

Got it?
Decided?
Then this.
Don’t wait for then.
Say it today.