When I was about five years old, I saw a television show about a woman who hid from death. She imagined death was an actual person, and if you locked yourself away from it, he could not get you. She therefore barracaded herself in a tiny apartment, never letting anyone in. She had food delivered outside her door and was careful to make sure death was not around when she retrieved it. I remember she was very old but healthy.

One day a man knocked at her door. She piered out through her peep-hole, eyeing a handsome blue-eyed man with blond hair. He was obviously injured and asked for help and to be let in. She refused, saying it was obviously a trick and that she knew he was actually Death. The man denied it and again asked to be let in.

I won't give the ending away, but it's been over 45 years since I've seen that show. I remember the conversation with my mother that followed seeing it--an old Twilight Zone episode that starred Robert Redford and Gladys Cooper. She said to live life to the fullest because you can't hide from death by shutting yourself away. She pointed out that the woman had died long ago and had stopped living the day she started hiding from death.

Now, years later I find myself thinking of how that film relates to my life now. The fact is my husband died March 31, 2010. But I'm still alive. If I shut myself away, not seeing people, coming out only to work, I'm no different from that old woman who locked herself in her house, never coming out. True, she was hiding from death, but is it any different than hiding from life?

So my question to all of you: What film impacted the way you lead your life?