5 in One Year

I saw someone I hadn't seen in 5 years and said to them, "I lost 5 close relatives in 2008. I'm really glad that year is over." The last time I had seen then was at the funeral of my father in law in 2008. That year first my favorite Aunt had died and I found myself at the funeral comforting several other relatives that I worried about might not make it through this death all right. Next, my father in law passed away and this was very difficult for my wife. And also for me because this was the last formal father figure in my life. Next my mother passed on while I was with my wife and daughter at Los Angeles International Airport transporting my father in laws ashes to St. Louis to be buried there next to his mother and father. I had to turn and walk towards the windows after telling the people at the dementia and Alzheimers facility to put my mother's body on ice until I could fly back and deal with her too. Life is for the living and I had to take care of my wife and daughter first to keep them okay on all levels. When I could fly back I had my mother go to a crematorium and I observed the body and kissed my popcycle mother on the forehead before they allowed me to push her into the furnace. It was so incredibly loud that I walked outside and watched my mother's smoke go up the 12 inch chimney into the sky. She would have liked that idea as she was a very spiritual person. My son could not deal at all with my mother's death and so we waited one year with my mother's ashes before we rented a yacht and buried her ashes at sea. I kept my mother's ashes on my grand piano in a blue velvet case until then. We put her ashes where John Denver crashed his plane into the ocean because she always liked John Denver's music. Later other younger relatives passed away unexpectedly (two cousins) and I felt devastated by this because one of my female cousins was only 7 years older than I.

Because this was so difficult for me to stay in balance through this many deaths in one year and to take care of all the family business surrounding all these passings I can understand how difficult what is happening in places like Syria too.

Imagine families of 5, 10 or even 20 people all massacred and gone within a day, a week, a month there. There is no sanity around this regarding the souls whose bodies are gone or for the friends and family left behind. There is only a lot of walking wounded people living and dead trying to deal with the horrors of life and not able to.

We need to help all these people living and dead with our prayers in order to prevent the insanity of the massacres from increasing and spreading to other countries throughout the middle east and north Africa.

If you have had to deal with more than one death of people close to you in one year you know how hard it can be to carry on without your loved ones. So, praying for all these living walking wounded as well as souls whose bodies have died might prevent another large war or even a world war now.