Sharing in Your Sorrow

It is always sad when someone passes away. But I think it is even more sorrowful when someone young dies. Yesterday, I had the occasion to attend a young person’s memorial service. I didn’t know the deceased person at all, but the young man’s father is my husband’s Air Force buddy. So, we attended the service for the family. That’s why we do the things we do when someone passes. We do them for the family and dear friends that are left behind. We have funerals, not for the dead, but for the living. We cry, not for the deceased, but for ourselves because we have lost someone we loved, and we must now live without that person’s presence in our lives.

As a mother of two adult children, the youngest soon to be 27 and the oldest currently 29, I CAN NOT imagine what it must feel like to have out-lived a child. I know that I have felt some pretty heavy heart ach when my children have experienced hurt. I know what it feels like when my children come home to visit, and then a few days later leave again. I miss them. But would I survive the ach of loosing a child? My heart was heavy most of yesterday after attending this service, but not for me. As I mentioned, I did not know this young 23-year-old man who passed away. I won’t know what it is like to miss him. But my heart was heavy for his parents who I also don’t really know. All I can do is put myself in their shoes and imagine what the ach must feel like. For them and their heart ach, I am truly sorry.