RIP

There are final bills, final destinations, final exams, final notices, and final frontiers, but nothing is as final as death. You know it will come someday, someway, somehow. It will be there for you, for your spouse, for your children, for your parents. It will be there for everyone you know and for everyone you don’t know. Death is ugly. Death is mean and often painful. Death will be a part of all our lives. We all know it’s coming, but most of us don’t do a lot, if anything, to prepare for it. It’s our final and longest trip and we must go empty-handed, taking nothing with us on this solo journey. Death doesn’t wait for us to finish what we've started. It doesn't always wait for us to say our last goodbyes. It has no schedule and honors no timetable except its own. The finality of death triggers other finals like arrangements and respects.

The above can be reduced to just two words: DEATH SUCKS!

Death became an intimate part of our lives today. We are realizing a deep and painful void. Now my husband has no father. My sons have no grandfather and I no longer have my dad-in-law. Good bye, Charlie. Adieu. Farewell. Oh, how you'll be missed.

photo by Diego Cupolo