May 02 2007
circle of life
A death in the family is never easy, even when you know it is coming. No matter how close you were or weren’t to the person, you see the ripple of grief through everyone you love and you cannot help but think about everyone who is left and who will be next.
I have been very lucky so far in life that death has only picked off the peripheral people but with each extended family member it makes me more worried about the ones closes to me.
"Next is me and then Grandma," my grandfather sensitively said to my brother when he called to offer his condolences.
Everyone is flustered, distracted, though not crying, yet. That will probably come tomorrow at the viewing. Dad just talks about the Mets. Mom says this is insensitive. I say it is telling. He is not a Mets fan. He is a Yankees fan. Yankees fans don’t talk about the Mets if they can help it.
All the same, there are three little girls, maybe 3 years old in matching jean overalls running back and forth outside my window screaming with the complete joy of just being alive and allowed to run around outside on this beautiful day. They have been at it for almost half an hour and I don’t understand how they aren’t tired yet. I cannot help but smile each time they come racing back on their way too and fro shouting like merry lunatics.
As I talked to my mom yesterday about old age and death, we had a refreshing reversal of the pattern of moms and married daughters. We started to talking about how my grandparents were probably going to start nagging us to have kids before they die and my mother, to my surprise, told me that I am not permitted to have kids for a very long while yet because it would make her feel old to be "grandma" and she is totally not ready for that yet.
The little girls are laughing riotously about something out there and waving sticks in the air in what I can only image is some sort of very enjoyable game I do not understand the rules of.
There is a lesson here about the circle of life. I am not sure I know what it is.
Hillary is an award winning playwright, fiction and non-fiction author best known for her play, The Love of Three Oranges which has been performed around the world. A Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo ML, she loves connecting with other writers no matter what their experience levels. For the business side of blogging, publishing and selling, visit Hillary at The Whine Seller. See a complete list of Hillary’s blogs and books here.
