My maternal grandfather passed away this morning. He had spent the last 4 or more years with Alzheimer’s disease but in the end left peacefully.  I heard this news from my mother via email and telephone, long distance from the South African winter to Austin’s heat. My grandmother, his wife, survives him but also has Alzheimer’s and does not recognize or remember him; I’m told that she has no grief or loss which makes his passing easier for everyone since his quality of life had been up and down in the last months.

I was struck all of a sudden by the fact that, after 86 years of precision, his heart has stopped beating. Somewhere in February or March of 1924 a few cells got together and started pulsing and did not stop until this morning.

[...] two separate angiogenic cell clusters form on either side of the embryo. [...] As embryonic tissue continues to fold, the two endocardial tubes are pushed into the thoracic cavity, begin to fuse together, and complete the fusing process at approximately 21 days.[...] The human heart begins beating at a rate near the mother’s, about 75-80 beats per minute.

My youngest son’s heart has been beating for less than a year and a half and who can tell how long it will continue to do so. Hopefully he will outlive me and if he ages to be as old as my grandfather his heart will keep it’s pace until 2096. Perhaps he’ll live to see the century turn before the information leaves its electrical host.

Nothing lasts… nothing lasts. Everything is changing into something else. Nothing’s wrong. Nothing is wrong. Everything is on track.