Blog 3753 – 02.20.2026

Good Night Sweet Prince

A little over a week ago I learned that two dear friends had been told by their doctors that they would soon die. The first a friend in Nebraska, John was told that he had three weeks to live. The second Dahl, once brother-in-law, but true brother forever, that he would after leaving the hospital be going into hospice care for he had just six months left to live. Dahl was worried about how he would be able to pay his end life expenses. Dahl’s worries are over. “On Thursday evening he took his final bow passing peacefully surrounded by family,” per his niece Deb. Thankfully the artist and performer in him had a briefer and better last act planned than the doctors had predicted.

Like Dahl when my final act comes I plan to go as quickly and as peacefully as possible. If the best one can hope for is to die in their sleep that is my intention. Some time ago I added to my daily mantra the words: “I ask whatsoever I will believing I shall receive. I seek and I shall find. I knock and it shall be opened unto me.” 

I do not believe, as sadly so many do, that we are victims of cruel or capricious fate, but rather as the Terminator movies exclaim that there is no fate but what we make. Somewhere before this adventure in time and space began we met with those who had agreed to play roles in our production and planned the whole thing from the first act to the final bow.

My beloved brother Dahl has taken his final bow just as another of his beloved nieces, my darling daughter Emily, took hers almost fourteen years ago. I like to think of the two of them after having a brief R &R sharing new adventures together and I hope they have save a choice role for me in some future play.

Shakespeare also wrote that, “Life is but a stage and we players.” Thank you, Dahl for a wonderful performance. To quote a favorite Elvis song. “You read your lines so cleverly and never missed a cue…”

Good night , sweet Prince!

Your friend and fellow traveler in time and space,

David James White