"Everyday life seems incredibly tiny when faced with the prospect of death and dying." These are the words of Dr. David Avery. David is thirty years old, unmarried, a successful doctor and recently faced with the realization that he suffers from a terminal form of acute leukemia. The living room where Dr. Avery and I sit in his Monterey home is beautifully decorated with portraits of angels. On almost every wall these images of ethereal beauty give a sense of security and calm. It is ironic that these menacing creatures watch over this house which is covered in a cloud of impending doom. The only dimension that leads one to believe that David is the man in the photographs surrounding us are the piercing green eyes that now look into me. . He is frail, thin, and as he sits curled up in a blanket, I see the shadow of the man I am now engaged to. Once a strong, handsome and athletic man, now weighing about 100 pounds, his appetite having fallen victim to rigorous chemotherapy treatments. David speaks slowly, sometimes obviously in great pain, a side effect of the drugs that are a last resort effort towards a miracle. He composes himself and explains, “No one will ever truly know what death feels like until they actually feel it for themselves.” Typically, words like fear, discouragement, confusion, despair, and grief come to mind. However, David explains, "the awareness of being about to die is surreal. Everyone knows they will die but no one ever believes it." birth is still completely unprepared in our culture. If society were aware that death could consume us at any moment, we would do things very differently. We are so consumed by materialism and status that we lose sight of important things like family, love, and our faith in God. Explain that we have lost our sense of common courtesy, decency, and the key ingredient to a full life of meaning, the development of relationships. After gaining the knowledge that his life is coming to an end, David appears to have received an element of peace with the world and acceptance of the inevitable. He clarifies: “Petty worries and concerns have been replaced by an overwhelming need to help others see the light at the end of the tunnel.