Dying in the middle of a frozen street

Scene from just outside a hospital
Montreal, QC
November 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We stopped at the hospital one last time yesterday morning before we set off on the long drive home. We'll be back soon, because there are still so many unknowns, still too much to do. But I was still feeling the pull of this place as we stepped onto the icy sidewalk. Like we wish we didn't have the weight of responsibility waiting for us on the other end of the highway, like life didn't force us to decide between being here or being there.

As we approached the car, I noticed this single, forgotten maple leaf in the middle of the street. It struck me as a metaphor of sorts, the universe's way of reminding me, here and now, that everything has a season and nothing lasts forever. That even in its final chapter, this withered sliver of life still has the ability to reach out and bestow some sort of meaning on those who, by choice or by circumstance, happen to cross its path.

That it lay forlornly on the street just outside a hospital where countless lives - including my father-in-law's - were having their own sometimes-not-so-textbook chapters written, struck me as somewhat poignant. That I still had the ability to stop what I was doing and record this soon-to-be-lost leaf, in this often-forgotten corner of the city, struck me as an opportunity.

Because as long as we're lucky enough to have the wherewithal to tell the stories playing out around us, I feel we should. We owe it to those whose paths already cross our own.

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