Having served on a jury for the past three weeks, I learned what a Life Care Planner does. This expert witness, hired by the plaintiff’s attorney, assessed and projected the so-called injured party’s future medical needs and imagined costs over her remaining life expectancy. I surmised this point was intended to seal the deal and explain why she deserved millions of dollars from the defendant.
My point: The life expectancy estimate was based on her current health condition (in my admittedly limited knowledge, she is in great shape, besides her professed neck pain). Based on standard life expectancy tables and his medical expertise, the Life Care Planner said she likely would live another twenty years. It was not lost on me that the plaintiff was only two years older than me.
It was a reality check. Sitting in the jury box, my mind’s eye landed on a mostly closed window—I’m no mathlete, but I guess my life window is closed by about 80%. That’s maybe what I have left, give or take, 20% or twenty years. That’s if I don’t get cancer or die suddenly in an accident. If I were to blow the doors off that estimate and live well into my eighties, I would live on borrowed time. Only God knows, but the odds may be against me.
I know how fast time flies by now, so twenty years will be a blink of my chronically dry eyes.
I’m hanging this photo on my wall as a seize-the-day reminder to live intentionally. As the gap in the window slowly reduces, God, please let me live and love well.