I'm still in touch with a few of the pupils that I used to teach. I felt old recently when one of them told me that her younger brother (whom I still think of as 'little Gary') is now a grandfather!
One of my former pupils died recently at the age of 43. My younger brother died two years ago at the age of 60 and his eldest son, my nephew, died last year at the age of 39. I can't understand why I'm still here.
The trouble is, Tilly, that I haven't. I have never enjoyed good health, and have abused my body so much over the years with alcohol and nicotine that I ought to have died at the age of 40. Yet, nearly 30 years on, I'm still here.