Death

When I was young I was terrified at the idea of death, I think learned from my mother's fear. It took a long time to shake it off. Now that I am starting to hear of death among people that I know, the topic is more relevant and, surprisingly, no longer fearful. What matters is the now, and this is so far joyful. In some ways, my Alzheimer's disease helps me to be "in the now" because I loose items from the past (but it's sometimes irritating for other people, such as me wife, who have to keep telling me what they said yesterday!)
On a more serious line: what about the Christian "everlasting life"? Treated literately, the idea seems terrible; but I see it as "being beyond time".