Life is short.

Life is short. I found an empty Tayto crisp packet in the jeep between the front seats. It had been there for a week. I remember the day my son and I bought the crisps, it was a Monday in February, cold but dry. I had picked him up from school that day, we drove from the school to another town about 15 miles from the school to collect some cattle ration.

He was hungry, and so was I, he had had a school lunch and I'd had nothing since breakfast, so we went into Dunnes with a fiver to see what could we get. We got a bag of bread rolls, a small block of cheddar cheese that was on special offer because it had almost reached the best before date, and a small packet of sliced ham. When we got to the till there was enough left over for one packet of crisps to share between the two of us, my son ran back to get them, while he was gone I said we were having lunch on the cheap to the lady behind the till.

We didn't have a shopping bag so just carried the food back to the jeep, put it all up on the dashboard. I took out my pocket knife, cleaned it and cut a roll in half, showed my son how to slice open the pack of cheese and cut a slice at the same time while he peeled open the ham. I put two slices of cheese on the bread, a slice of ham and folded the bread roll closed and handed it to him. Then I repeated the process for myself. It tasted just lovely, sometimes a simple meal is the best.

On the way home we ate the crisps between us, the cheese and ham went into the fridge when we got home, the rolls just sat on the breakfast bar. When my wife got home, our son told her about the cheap lunch. I think she was shocked that I fed our son almost out of date cheese, cheap bread rolls and ham that wasn't bordbia approved. Jesus, I thought good job she didn't find out about using the pocket knife.

My Dad hadn't been too well that weekend, he had fallen a few times so that night I went for the first time to help my mum put him to bed. When we had gotten him up on the stairlift, undressed and into bed I said to him goodnight, I love you. He mumbled something in return, I didn't quite catch it, something like ya you do, or ya I know you do.

The next day was Tuesday, my dad stayed in bed all day. My mother called the GP and he came to visit him in the afternoon, said he had a chest infection. While my mother went out to the local pharmacy he died, alone, in bed.

We buried him on the Saturday. The following week I found the empty crisp packet, I remember thinking when I bought the crisps my dad was still alive, and now he is dead and buried never to be seen again and yet here is this empty crisp packet that has lasted longer than my father. Life is short, make the most of it.