This morning as I sipped on a cup of coffee in one of Brevard’s great local bakeries, listening to bluegrass performed by talented locals, I was interrupted by a “ting” from my phone. Glancing at the message I was shocked to read that my friend Jane was “at peace now in Heaven. She took her last breath around 8:20.” I could not believe what I was reading. I knew Jane had been sick, but I thought she was at home recovering. I had no idea that the end was near for her. My friend Jane was my age. That, my reader, was a shock of a different kind, and an unwelcome reminder of mortality.
The losses have begun in earnest. Two years ago, in the space of 6 months, I lost 8 friends. All from something other than Covid. They were older than I, but not by a whole lot. Recently I learned that 10 people I had known in college had passed away. This past year my husband died and so did two other people who I knew very well. And now, today, my friend Jane.
Death is on a rampage.
I guess when one reaches the 70 years, death becomes a more frequent visitor. Hopefully, we pray, not to us even as we watch Death claim our friends and we attend their funerals or celebrations of life. This is the cloak of mortality that clothes us all.
I do believe that my essence, my soul, is timeless and immortal. I believe I have had many lives before this one, and that I will have many more when this one is over. But right now, I really like the one I have. I’m in no hurry to shed the costume that is my body. I think about what Jane must be seeing. I thought the same about my husband when he passed. I know that one day it will be me seeing, and the ones I leave behind wondering as I do today.
Yes, Death is on a rampage. There is nothing I can do about it, either. I may be timeless, but I live in time and space. I don’t plan on wasting what is left.