I am often advising my patients about ways of maintaining good health and living longer healthier lives.
One day a patient shared this story with me, and I am relating it here, tongue firmly in cheek, for the reading pleasure and amusement of my Suite 101 readers.
A certain husband and wife were both 85 years old and had been married for 60 years. Although they were far from rich, they had managed to get by comfortably because they were modest in their habits and watched their pennies. They were not young, but they were both in very good health, largely due to following their family doctor's advice and the wife's insistence on healthy foods and regular exercise.
One day, their good health didn't help when they went on vacation overseas and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven.
They reached the pearly gates, where St. Peter courteously escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a bathroom that had a waterfall and a large spa bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favourite clothes in the closet. They gasped in astonishment when he said, "Welcome to Heaven, this will now be your home."
The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. "Nothing," Peter replied. "Remember, you have led a good and morally upright life on Earth and this is your reward in Heaven."
The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any he had ever seen on Earth. "What are the greens fees?" asked the old man. "This is Heaven," St. Peter replied. "You can play for free every day."
Next they went to the clubhouse and saw a lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts, and free flowing beverages including the best Australian and French wines. "Don't even ask," said St. Peter to the man. "this is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy."
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife. "Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods and the low calorie beer and decaffeinated coffee which our doctor used to recommend?" he asked. "That is the best part," St. Peter interjected. "You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like and you will never get fat or sick. This is Heaven!"
The old man pushed, "No gym to work out at?"
"Not unless you want to," was the answer. "No having to test my sugar or cholesterol or blood pressure every day... Never again." The Saint smiled at him.
The old man glared at his wife and said, "You and your following the doctor's advice. If we had just eaten and drunk what we wanted to and avoided exercise, we would have been here ten years ago!"
Sanjiva Wijesinha - Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, Associate Professor at Monash University medical school, writes on health, travel and medical topics.
