I had an unpleasant shock early this week when I learned that a friend who lives in another state died suddenly the very day I last spoke with her. Since she was expecting company the next day, I hadn't expected to hear from her for at least a week. And since her family doesn't know me, I didn't know about her death for over two weeks. She had already been cremated.

After not hearing from her for over two weeks and not being able to reach her on the telephone, I looked at the obituaries in her city's newspaper and saw the sad news. I was able to get in touch with one of her relatives and learned that she had probably died not long after I spoke with her on March 29.

As we all know, we never know when we'll be speaking with someone or seeing them for the last time.