This week has been such a mournful one for me. Again, I have observed the pain that death inflicts on all of us on this Earth. I saw this wonderful family deal with the suffering of losing a child. I saw their bravery, their ability to say "It is what it is, and now we go on." And I think that they will do that. Go on. The father, the mother, the two teen-aged daughters all rest their pain on each other and know that they will have each other (and many others) to rely on when they think they will no longer be able to bear it. They all have an incredible faith, in God, in an afterlife.
I have seen this before, when my nephew died a few years ago. I marveled, then, at my sister, her husband, and her daughter, at their generosity of spirit, at their ability to accept the gifts of togetherness and love that everyone brought to them from their community and their family and their friends. They bore it all with such grace. They were an inspiration to me, just as this other family is.
Of course, I have seen how the death of a child has destroyed families, too. We had a French exchange student, years ago, who died shortly after her time with us. Her parents fell apart in their grief, unable to cope with the pain of losing their daughter. Their family is a empty shell of the rich thing that it had been before.
And last year, we went to the funeral of a child who drowned at age one year and felt that mother's pain, as she lay on the floor, weeping, while the tiny casket of her child rolled down the aisle. She is still struggling, unable to accept the horrible thing that has happened to her, and I wonder if she will let her life become an empty shell, too. Too soon to tell, I suppose, but the direction it is taking is not good.
I see all this, and I wonder which tack I would take. I like to believe that I would be the strong one, who would be able to see all the other wonderful things that God has given me and seek consolation in that, but I wonder... You never know till it happens to you and I pray that it never, ever does. I don't want my life challenged in that way. I am afraid I would fail, and that depresses me.
I guess I will just keep praying for all of these families, and hope that no more tragedy comes their way, or comes mine.
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