Welcome to Thanks for being here. Very short pod that comes out every Sunday morning as

Sundays are such a good time to let go of the day to day and touch base with what matters,

what will matter and what will have mattered. The answer to that question for me is often

found in ceremonies I could watch strangers get married once a week and I'm even more affected

by funerals. Sitting in a service, taking in the story of one life, just another ordinary

person who they loved and who loved them. In a way, eulogies are about the most succinct

source of clarity and direction I can think of. So I ask listeners who have lost someone dear

to share their words and every week I'll read one eulogy here so that we don't forget

there is a point to the pain. We have much to offer. We affect each other deeply and that ordinary

lives are really kind of exquisite when you look at them closely. This is thanks for being here.

This week's thanks for being here is from Jody about her dad.

Thank you for coming. About a year ago, not long after finding out he had less than that to live,

my dad and I were sharing a drink between doctor's appointments. He thought we were just hanging

out but on this particular outing, my mission was to convince him to let us have a memorial

service for him after he died. As his daughter, I got pretty good at convincing him to do pretty much

anything I wanted him to do. I told him it didn't matter if he wasn't religious. We just wanted

to celebrate his life and be there for each other, especially since he impacted so many lives in

such a short period of time. Well, obviously he agreed. Many of you may not know that my dad

then came to terms with his own mortality at a very young age. When I was just over a year old,

he found himself staring down the barrel of a 45 on a runway in Hong Kong.

30 years later, he would begin a decade-long journey dotted with quarterly physicals and blood tests,

daily medication and frequent breath-holding while awaiting his PSA test results to hopefully

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