A few years back a friends father and I were enjoying a few beers back in the UK together, it was nearer the end of the evening and we were putting the world to rights with drunken conversation.
He then said something to me that stuck.
He said that when he was young he’d go to many friends birthday parties, then wedding parties and then celebrated his friends newborns with a party. You then had the 40th and 50th landmark birthday parties.
Then, as he got even older, he would have to attend the odd funeral, say for his grandparents or a friends parent, and then – as he continued to get older (he is around 65 years old) – he noticed some of the funerals were for his friends. His point was that it was a cruel world and at some point we all need to face our maker and it catches up on you very quickly.
Sadly, death comes to us all
Life does indeed move at pace. I am 43 years old and I have some grey hairs and I can see the odd wrinkle and I really wonder how did it all go so fast.
I have been living in Thailand for some 12 years now and of course, as the case world over, a few people I know here have sadly passed. As the years pass I notice it even more. When I scroll through my Facebook friend list I can see just how many have died. I lose count of people in Thailand I have known that have died.
Just the other week I was talking to a pub landlord in Pattaya who now wants to move back to Australia with his family, I am guessing he is about 55 years old. One of the reasons cited was that he was fed up with his friends all starting to die in Pattaya. The problem you see, and this is the premise for this blog, is that most of the expats here in Thailand have come to retire. So, it’s common sense that the older ones among us will be the first to go and there are more older guys here than younger ones.
I guess this blog addresses a subject most of us expats don’t want to read, but we cannot escape the fact that none of us get off this world alive. The point too is very valid – If you are a younger working expat in Thailand chances are you have friends whom are retired and much older than you. In fact, it will be far more than would have been the case if you still lived back in your domestic country.
The sad reality is as a working expat living in Thailand chances are your circles of friends in Thailand will die earlier than friends back home
It means you will need to experience far more sad days of grief in your younger years being an expat here than your counterparts would back home. It is one of those subjects I never considered until in the last seven days I heard of two people I knew in Pattaya whom had just passed away. It never seems to stop.
Living in Thailand is awesome for me, this is just one of negative aspects that has just dawned on me – and it is very real.
It adds more reason for all of us to never take any day for granted and enjoy this world why we still can.
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Daunting indeed Dan…I am retired now and don’t have any friends to speak of…. You are still young and in an area where you can go for a few beers….I don’t drink nor have any kind of bars around me ..thank goodness!….I came to Thailand back in 2003…… for the first time…. peace and blessings……I have stayed in other countries and from what I just glimpse just looking at how our world is evolving, Thailand ain’t that bad as it is made out…..I sometimes feel that Loneliness….then when I look inwardly,it evaporates, Your blogs are good to read….. there is so much mucky news about Foreign Nationals here…..I don’t understand why? Friends are difficult to come by…..for sure…. Good day!