Can a lifetime truly be defined?
By hdjohnson
@hdjohnson (2981)
United States
January 2, 2009 7:09pm CST
I work in an non profit organization and the department I work in I handle scheduling the activities and events and meetings throughout the entire campus.
I schedule places where memorial services and repast celebrations are held. Majority of the time, I come to learn the age and cause of death of the deceased person, before I schedule the service. I don't inquire about this information, it is just given at the time of request for the area.
I have been off of work for the since Dec. 24th and I don't go back until January 6th. Even though I am technically off of work, I still have some responsibilities to handle as a result of the days off. Part of it deals with having to schedule any potential home going memorial services and repasts for anyone that dies. There happened to be two deaths over the holiday season we had to make arrangements for. Although I don't know their causes of death; it made me think of all of recent deaths in the past few months.
It would appear that everyone is dying because of some sort of a disease that no one close to them really knew about. Think about this a 24 year old girl who was very active in community service and her church died because of a stage 4 cause of cancer. Another guy just under 50 years old died for a similar case of cancer. I know what it means to lose close loved ones, I lost my mother in 2004, one of my brothers in 2006, and another one of my brothers in 2008. I am the youngest of 6 siblings.
My mom has just turned 68, my brother hadn't turned 44 yet when he died, and my other brother was around 50 or less. I turn 35 next month. When I think how young they all were, it makes me wonder, will I have done all the things I would have liked to do, before I take my final nap. Although, I believe I am in one of the best shapes in my life ~ I sit and wonder as I'm typing this discussion, just how long should a lifetime be defined.
I have seen infants died before the age of 3, teenagers died before becoming an adult, young adults died before becoming middle aged or even seniors, I have seen some young seniors die, and I have seen some older seniors die.
So how long do you define a life to be? Thanks for reading and responding.
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