My grandfather died too young and I’m repeating his patterns

I watched my grandfather die — and I don’t want to follow in his footsteps, here are my commitments to change.

Out of the blue one day last year, some random woman who I had never met called me. She told me that she had interviewed my grandfather for a book she was writing (he was a very well-known man in Canada) just before he retired. He must have been 64 at the time, and retiring later that year — or so he said.

I had to buy a cassette player to listen to the interview because the interview was from back in the 90s — but the little pink walkman I purchased just added to the reminiscence of the experience.

I listened to his familiar voice as he spoke, and paid close attention. She began the interview by asking him questions relating to work. His tone was stern, professional, and deep. His words were very apparently carefully thought out — he paused and spoke with purpose. He almost sounded robotic in his tone.

However, the topic of her book was not about his career, it was going to be about what to do after retirement from busy careers. He was a politician, one of the first black politicians alongside Rosemary Brown. Needless to say, he worked hours and carried a lot of weight on his shoulders with this high-stress position.

You could hear in his tone the impact of years of work and no personal life had done to him. He had spent his…