When I was a teenager I had a dream that I was dying.

As a child, my grandmother always comforted me with the words that what frightened me didn't happen - it was just a dream.

My teenage dream of dying couldn't be comforted by this method. It occurred to me that from the moment we're born we're dying - and it's really happening!!

As I'm 60+ I'm determined to overcome this fear - so that when my time comes I can meet it with dignity and courage.

This is still a work in progress for me - but this is what I've come up with.

A psychiatrist once asked me years ago to recount my very first memory. At the time I thought it was an odd thing to say - so naturally asked him why it would be relevant?

I've remembered his answer to this day. He said, "It's not the memory itself that's important - but why, of all the things that happened to you, that particular event has stood the test of time."

He went on to explain that it had significance to the core of your personality - to point the way to the person you would become.