This First Person article is the experience of Dana Kobernick, who lives in Montreal. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ .

I’ve just passed another milestone birthday, and yet the familiar dread of reluctantly skidding into a new decade seems to have softened somewhat.

The quiet realization that my yesterdays outnumber my tomorrows feels less like a threat and more like a gift.

Aging, I’ve come to see, is a privilege. It doesn’t always feel like one because for me — whether grounded in reality or based on assumption — growing older is a process synonymous with decline, a gradual slowing of both mind and body.

But then I lost someone who never got the chance, and it made me see things differently.

My dear friend Natalie died afte

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