One's outlook is significantly altered when the end of one's life is in view or closer. I speak not of my immediate end but that philosophical contemplation of the end of one's life. Prompted in part by the death of my father in 1999 and my mother in August 2010. Being an orphan is not exactly correct as one dictionary defines it as: a child whose parents are dead. I am not a child. But when parents die one feels as if they are a child in some ways, once again. I remain unsure as to my point at this moment, tired after a day working in the emergency room. But I do know that I miss my mother and father. Life consist of great longing and yet of fulfillment too. It would have been my mother's birthday this last April 9. I miss her.