This is Jonathan Clements, he is facing death from cancer. He is managing his social media accounts so that we are in no doubt that this is front and centre of his thinking.
He was at school with me, a mild boy, sensitive and intelligent. I suspect he had a hard time, I liked him. 40 years later, Robin Powell re-introduced him to me. Jonathan had become a respected authority on personal finance and a social media influencer, I am sure there is much more to say about him but he lives in the States and I live in the UK.
Ron Lieber of The New York Times has written about his imminent death
A money guru bet big on a very long life got , then he got cancer
“Those are the words of Jonathan Clements, 61, who wrote more than 1,000 personal finance columns for The Wall Street Journal between 1994 and 2015. Plan on living past 90 and save accordingly, he advised, when he wasn’t running marathons or riding bicycles.
“In May, he saw a doctor about some balance issues. Two days later, he received a devastating cancer diagnosis. Scans revealed a golf-ball-size tumor on his lung, and the disease has spread to his brain, his liver and elsewhere.
“Anything beyond 12 decent months would be a victory. ‘I’m definitely on the clock here,’ he said as we sat at his kitchen table this week.
“Asking Mr. Clements whether he wishes to take any of his advice back might seem like the height of callousness, but he doesn’t shy away from much. He has already turned his horrible luck into crisp prose, filled with bold-font takeaways on his website, humbledollar.com.”
Jonathan’s website is independent and informative, Robin Powell is right in pointing me to it and it is poignant to read it, not least because this could sit at the top of this blog.
OUR GOAL IS TO TELL you everything you need to know about money—all in one place, and without the hype and hollow promises that characterize so much financial writing.
and on his own circumstances, Jonathan is determined to ask us to engage with his circumstances
FIRST WAS THE VOICE of my father’s friend. Then a policeman came on the line. While riding his bicycle, my 75-year-old father had been struck and killed by a speeding driver.
That was 2009. There were no goodbyes. Instead, seared into my memory are the photograph I was shown at the hospital, so I could identify my father’s body, and the details in his final medical report, which I never should have read.
My death will be far different. I’ve been given the time to straighten out my financial affairs, savor some last experiences, spend time with friends and family, and set HumbleDollar on a course that I hope will ensure it continues to thrive.
So how to react?
How do we react to this? It is not just Jonathan, I know several other people who are living not just with the certainty of death but the high probability of death within a year. Some are open about it, others not so. Most wish to live their death in private, but to die publicly is a choice I respect.
Jonathan is open about what he is thinking
What about when the end comes? It’s hard to know what it’ll be like—which part of my body will give way, how much discomfort and pain will be involved, and how clear my thinking will be at that juncture. Still, in my wishful thinking, I have a mental picture of how it’ll play out.
Claudio, in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is given but a day to prepare for death and articulates his feelings more acutely
Being a Christian I am not supposed to fear death, I can face my maker (I am told) without fear.
But this is too facile a notion.
As a Christian I pray for Jonathan and for other of my friends who are close to death, that they may live their dying days as Jonathan intends to; seizing each day as if it were his last, until it is his last.
Social media embraces life and sometimes it embraces death too. I wish Jonathan a happy last few months, hoping months turn into years. Those who know me, and know they are close to death, should know I wish the same for them.
We prepare for a long life, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. Them’s the breaks.