Thread by @BostonGlobe

“How does a person live with the knowledge that the end is coming? How would I tell family and friends? Would I be depressed? Is there an afterlife? How do you get ready for death, anyhow?”

Jack Thomas recently learned he doesn't have much time left. bos.gl/5xRfSZF

Jack Thomas has been a journalist for more than 60 years.

So after doctors delivered the news that he has a terminal illness, he sat down to do what came naturally, if painfully: Write this story.

From @BostonGlobeMag: bos.gl/5xRfSZF

Years ago, Jack wrote an essay about looming death as an assignment.

"Throughout the semester, thinking that I soon would die, classmates judged my writing with mercy. I never had the courage to tell them I was healthful.

Now, however, destiny is about to get even with me."

“After a week of injections, blood tests, X-rays, and a CAT scan, I have been diagnosed with cancer. It’s inoperable. Doctors say it will kill me within a time they measure not in years, but months.” bos.gl/5xRfSZF

"Atop the list of things I’ll miss are the smiles and hugs every morning from my beautiful wife, Geraldine, the greatest blessing of my life. I hate the notion of an eternity without hearing laughter from my three children. And what about my 40 rose bushes?" writes Jack.

🌹🌹🌹

"Till now, life’s been grand. I was blessed to write for a newspaper, a career H. L. Mencken described as the life of kings."

"My first story was in 1958, so publication of this essay today marks the eighth decade that my writing has appeared in the Globe."

“Editing the final details of one’s life is like editing a story for the final time. It’s the last shot an editor has at making corrections, the last rewrite before the roll of the presses.” writes Thomas. bos.gl/5xRfSZF

"The final months would be a lot easier if I could be assured that, after death, we’d get a chance to see people who have died already. I’d like to shake hands with my best friend, my father, who died in 1972 and whom I’ve missed every day since." bos.gl/5xRfSZF

"The experts say more than 100 billion humans have died. If you’re looking for a buddy to have a beer, like jazzman Dave McKenna or writer Jerry Murphy or possibly Peter Falk who played Columbo, how are you going to find him in a mob of 100 billion people?"

”I know that after I die, I probably ought to forget all the treats of this life, like Lobster Savannah dinners on an expense account at an Elysium such as Locke-Ober, and with my luck, there’s probably some rule against chilled Hendrick’s martinis with a lemon twist.”

“I’m not sure what awaits me when I get home, but this has certainly been an exciting experience.”

Read Jack Thomas’s full essay in @BostonGlobeMag: bos.gl/5xRfSZF