At 73 I have already outlived my father who died at age 69 but not as long as my mother, her mother, or her two sisters who all lived to be 90 years old each.
The first person I lost was my 16 year old cousin when I was 8 years old in 1956. The next person I lost was my mother's father when I was 12 years old in 1960. then I lost my father's father in 1970 in a van accident in Idaho. He was pretty old then already because he had been born in the 1870s. His wife, my grandmother passed away within a couple of years of his passing. Then in 1978 I lost my mother's mother when she was 90 because she was born in 1888.
So, the deaths were a trickle until I was in my 40s or 50s and then it went into a cascade of deaths culminating with my aunt, one of my female cousins, my wife's father and my mother all passing away in 2008. It hasn't been that bad since then because most people my age or older are already gone now in my life. However, a good friend of ours died of Covid in Mexico last December. So, that is the last person we lost who was a friend or relative so far.
I figure about 100s of people I know have passed away by now and I have been to at least 50 funerals that I can remember starting in 1978 when my mother's mother passed away when I was 30 years old.
I didn't usually go to funerals much before I was 30 because I guess I just didn't want to be around death and I wasn't grown up enough yet.
However, when I lost two of my best friends, one in 2006 and one in 2011 I found that in 2011 this was my best junior high and high school friend and I couldn't speak the day leading up to the funeral I was so upset about my friend's death.
So, learning how to deal with death one learns to continue living without most or all of the people you once knew in your life.
If you don't learn this then very soon you are gone too.
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