My mother died in 1999 at 76. In the photo above she was 72 to my 48. I am now 70. Leona had suffered two heart attacks and was residing in Long’s Nursing Center in rural Saluda County. My memory is vague but I think I picked her up and drove her back on 12 27 ’95 so that she could sleep in her own bed that night.

I wish I could command my memory to give me that day back again. My old adult self craves knowledge of my deceased parents. The most salient fact in my mind is my own age relative to hers. By her measure I am not long for my life on Earth and I like thinking about that.

Realizing the shortness of my likely continued existence makes me appreciate the life I have. Unlike Leona, I have good health as far as I know but I like knowing that I will more than likely die soon. Internally I operate as if I am the younger version of myself in this photo. I see myself in the future and I am planning yet another camping trip out West to see Bend Bend National Park.

The time-stamped image sharpens my desire to appreciate my limited time and reminds me that what I perceive as me internally is not what others see. I am a lucky old man now who is using danielforrest.org and dmforrest.smugmug.com to lay down a record of who I am and was in case those who reside on this planet after I am gone care to discover me or remember me.

Daniel Miller Forrest died [date] due to [cause of death].  He was born in Greenwood, South Carolina, in December 1948 and lived most of his youth in Saluda, South Carolina.

He moved to Rock Hill in 1972 after graduation from the University of South Carolina and fulfillment of his active duty military obligation.  He taught English for 34 years and held a wide variety of other jobs.

He and his high school sweetheart Nita P. Forrest were married [years] and had a son, Chris, a daughter, Danielle, and two grandchildren, Hannah Forrest Bailey and Grace Forrest.  Next to his family he loved nature, art, and intelligent public discourse most of all.

He was fond of saying “I have had a full life and in no way deserved all of the advantages I fell into by virtue of my birth in the right country at the right time.”  He often remarked that he felt a kind of guilt for being a lucky American with more than adequate material possessions and good health.

He did not believe in God but had an abiding faith in humanity.  He intended for his websites danielforrest.org and dmforrest.smugmug.com to survive him for a while as a way for people who remembered him to know something more about how he lived his life and what he thought.

He loved to camp and pre-selected Site 178 in Passages I at Kings Mountain Preserve for his permanent camp site in death.  His favorite charity was the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).