Death – A Game That Cannot Be Won

Something really hit close home today.  I was at work, and I had found out that one of my fellow co-workers, his mom just died this morning from battling lung cancer.  He is not much older than I am.  He is 28, and I am only 25.  I love my mom, and hell, my mom does a lot of things for me that I take for granted these days.

She helps prepares my taxes, and handles the finances, especially with handling the logistics of a new house I just recently got (that is a different story).  After hearing the news, I sort of started thinking “Who do you take for granted these days?”

In my family, no one has died yet.  Yes, I had a grandmother pass away, as well as an aunt, but I didn’t really know them.  My aunt died from breast cancer, and my grandmother from stroke.  This was a few years ago.  The aunt is survived by her husband and three children.  Last I heard, the father was doing OK but it took him a couple months for grieving.

Someday death will arrive at my family.  Who will it be?  My parents?  My brother, sister, myself?  You don’t know, and I don’t know.  If my parents were gone, would I know enough to survive on my own?  Once you think about it, the moment someone dies, it is a lot of work afterward to clean up their “mess”.  You have to arrange a funeral and invite people.  You may need to sell off the house, or pay off the deceased loans/bills.  The hardest part of it all is continue to live life when that loved one is no longer with you.

I have not had the experience yet to lose someone close to me, but I fear that when that time comes, I will not be strong enough to carry on (for at least a while).  Could you?  If you had a loved one that was taken away from you, how does it feel?  How did you cope, or even manage?

Death is a natural part of life, and in part, it is scary in it of itself.  You are hear on this planet for X amount of time.  After so many years, you got to kick the bucket.  Then what?  Yes, many people have a religion and they believe in Christ and that they will go to the afterlife of some sort.

I am Catholic, and I have faith that an afterlife does exist, such as heaven, with God.  It sort of gives me an inner peace so I can carry on with my daily life.  If I didn’t believe in such a realm, I think I would just stare at the wall all day and get sucked into this black hole of what is the purpose of life thing.

Worst case scenario: Imagine there is no afterlife, then what?  Just go *poof* and that’s it?  You ever hear stories about how fact is stranger than fiction?  Such as the statue of Mary in Rome that has tears running down her eyes?  Or the cop video that shows a criminal car driving through a fence without knocking it down?

What do you think?  How do you get a grip on life with your own existence, knowing that someday you too will disappear forever?  Scary, right?  *shudders*

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