I nearly
died of
pneumonia under rather strange circumstances when I was
12. It left me with the
utter conviction that I was
mortal - a
notion that most
adolescents are lucky enough to lack.
Rather than being unable to imagine that I would ever die, I was unable to imagine that I would make it to middle age. Naturally, I had some fairly dramatic ideas about being doomed and dying young.
Talk about cognitive dissonance! This year I turned 40 and survived cancer. I'm an old fartress, which just goes to show how mistaken I can be.