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Today, I went with my dad to help him paint one of my neighbors house. Jack was his name, a guy who was 88 he said. He definitely didn't look the part...He looked like he was in his fifties. That, and he loved to smile. I couldn't help but wonder why an 88 year old man would want his living room painted. He would randomly talk to me and my dad while we were working and I heard some interesting things. He was going to give his house over to his daughter when he passed away and knew he didn't have much time left to live. It kind of shocked me, but made sense in a way too. He wanted his daughter to have a nice looking place and not have to worry about redecorating. Another thing he told me was that he was a WWII veteran and was a fighter pilot that fought against Germany. He flew those planes that had shark teeth painted on them...I thought that was freakin' awesome when he told me. I realized this guy was like...a modern day hero. Even heroes aren't invincible though, after working for a bit longer, he started telling me about his condition, he has prostate cancer and knows he won't live much longer. But the strangest part...he smiled when he said it. I wonder if that's what it means to live a truly happy life, to be able to know you're going to die and still smile at the end of the day. I really understand the phrase, "Life is short" now...