Last night, it was my wife’s birthday, so I thought it would be a good time to watch a story of an old couple, getting older, and eventually dying. Such cheerful stuff could only be made by the French – and in this case it was ‘Amour’, the French film which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2012. It was interesting listening to my wife’s commentary throughout the film. The big thing that shocked her was that this old couple were trying to survive with zero support from their children – that it was the old man taking care of his old wife (with state support) while the daughter just showed up to visit and say hello. The apartment they lived in certainly felt very empty – hard to imagine a similar situation in Ivory Coast. Most Africans in my experience feel old people’s homes are deeply uncivilized.

The second thing my wife found shocking was the complete absence of any sense of belief in the afterlife.

I’m still very much a product of a Western and largely secular society. But my wife helps me see how what I take to be largely normal, is actually rather shocking. It is strange to see an old couple who’ve had children rattling around a flat at the end of their life in apparent abandonment, instead of being celebrated.

The film is a healthy reminder of our sad earthly fate. In a blink of an eye we will be old and frail, possibly in pain, and (if we’re lucky) thinking about the end. For me, the injustice (or rather perhaps the unnaturalness) I feel about death points me to a deeper meaning to humanity and strengthens my faith in God.