What will you be most proud of in your last moments?
My Dad was a very successful executive in the oil and gas industry.
While my Dad was an amazing father, many of my childhood memories of our family dinners involve him stressing out and blowing off steam about whatever had happened at his workplace that day. He was often angry, frustrated, or just generally crabby or in a bad mood. He didn't take good care of himself, didn't invest in his physical well-being, and didn't eat very well.
My Dad made an executive-level salary that allowed my family to live in privilege.
The privilege I grew up with, however, came at a cost.
My Dad died in 2009 when I was 26 years old, just 10 years after he officially retired from cancer. He had just turned 67.
While there's no way of knowing how he got cancer, it's easy to discern that a stressful work life and often prioritizing work over his health and well-being that were big contributors. Not to mention 40+ years of exposure to oil and gas not helping his health situation.
My Dad dying is something I've never really recovered from, but something I did learn from.
I spent a year with my Dad, from the time he found out he was going to die to when I saw him take his last breath.
In that year, his reflections about his life were never about how hard he worked, what he accomplished in his career, or how much money he made. In those last days, he only talked about the stuff in life that meant something to him: his family, his friendships, his faith, his passions, interests, adventures, and his memories of joy in his life.
Work is important, but what I witnessed and learned from my Dad is that in one's last days is that it's not the amount of money you made or how "high up" you made it within a company that makes a happy, satisfying life that makes you smile to recall. It was the important things of life that getting all too consumed with the pursuit of capital, and that which hustle-culture can sometimes get in the way of.
I just relay this little painful memory with hopes that it helps someone remember where LIFE truly is. And it's not in your bank account or on your business card.
I love work, but I've learned to love life more because I've witnessed how precious and vulnerable it is.
Anne-Marie E. Fischer, BA (Hons), M.Ed., blends her passion for the written word with her vocation to create a better world through effective communications, education, and Community Based Research (CBR).
Words for Impact is the culmination of Anne-Marie’s passions, talents, training, experience, and education. This unique company offers grant and proposal writing, research studies, research reports, impact reports, content development, brand development, communications consulting, biography/autobiography (ghost)writing, education and training materials, curriculum development, podcast script writing, journalistic articles, press releases, developmental editing, in-line editing, and fact-checking.
Words for Impact has a specific interest in serving nonprofits, not-for-profits, community organizations, Indigenous organizations, highly-regulated sectors, individuals & entrepreneurs, podcast hosts, and innovative industries.
Learn more about Words for Impact’s services here and past Impact Projects that Anne-Marie has been involved in here. Dedicated to helping you find the right words for the things that matter.
