We never really understand the value of our loved ones until they are gone, and no one understands that more than Liam Neeson. In March 2009, he received a phone call that would change his life forever.

He was working in Toronto when his wife of 16 years, actress Natasha Richardson, was taking skiing lessons at a resort near Quebec when she fell and suffered a traumatic head injury. When he talked to her afterward she told him she’d simply taken a tumble in the snow.

He had no idea that the injuries she sustained would lead to her death just hours later. He went into her hospital room and told her that he didn’t think she was coming back from this. He told her he was taking her back to New York so her family and friends could see her.

Thankfully, she and Neeson had both made plans to be organ donors and three people were saved due to her donation. Her memory lives on in her husband and two sons, Micheal and Daniel. Neeson says it is the hardest thing in the world to lose someone that you love.

He says his wife brought him so much joy and was his everything. He says being her husband taught him how to love unconditionally. He says life is short and we should all be thankful for our spouses, spend time with them, and treat them well.

Neeson says we should all live and love every day like it is our last because one day it will be. He says tell the ones you love that you love them everyday because one day when you look up from the phone, they won’t be there anymore.

This is a reminder that we should never take our lives and loved ones for granted. Share this story with those that you love as a reminder that you really do care about them.