Most of us have brushes with death when we’re young but in those years it is usually never more than a rare visitor, to be forgotten as quickly as possible. After 50 it becomes an acquaintance, sometimes a frequent one. Too soon, for all of us, it will be a companion and, finally, move in with us. A meditation on the deeply personal feelings we have about dying and how we might prepare ourselves for the inevitable day when the light goes out.

Joan Shiels is a good friend and frequent speaker at UUFDC. She has been a church pastor in Sturgeon Bay and a chaplain in a nursing home in Minneapolis. These days her ministry is doing weddings — and funerals.