A beautiful, full life

I received the sad news that my next-door-neighbour passed away in hospital yesterday morning. Last weekend, suddenly there was an ambulance, a bit later a firemen's truck arrived, and a bit later I saw that the firemen got her out of her second story bedroom window and into the ambulance. Her daughter said she didn't know how bad the problems were, but when I saw her (her bedroom is right next to mine) she looked very weak. Earlier this week I heard that she was "slowly getting better", but on Friday the news was worse and she passed on Saturday morning. She was 89 years old and as far as I know she led a full and happy life. When I moved into this house she was already 73, and she and her husband (who died 3 years ago) were such a fun couple. They had 6 children and I don't know how many grand- and great-grand children, and it seemed they were all visiting every day. There was a non-stop stream of visitors to their house, and when I popped in for a quick chat or we had a neighbourly talk "across the hedge" she often offered some food or fruit. She was also full of stories including some about men that had wanted her when she was young. She will be missed.
Her passing also reminded me of what SO said when he and RE were visiting last week. SO raised the topic "what will we leave behind when we are gone" and after joking that he must have a mid-life crisis we talked about it more seriously. RE and I agreed that there is no real need to leave anything behind: if you have a good life, and you try to be good to some other people, that's basically enough. But SO wanted to leave something more tangible so he is thinking about volunteer work, "doing something meaningful for the world".
I hadn't met the gang for two weeks and I made up for it on Friday night. Was happy to see PA and MC who were visiting from Germany, RO introduced his new boyfriend LA and told me about all the drama of their relationship (mainly caused by LA's ex-bf), and I talked with a Taiwanese tourist who said he "loves Amsterdam because everybody always smiles". Maybe he spent too much time in the gay bars and not enough time in supermarkets, offices and public transport.......