Had a beautiful memorial service today for my step-dad. Evergreen Memorial Gardens, here in Vancouver, was absolutely wonderful from start to finish.
I never called him Dad, but he was a great father. He was there every time I needed help. I shudder to think how I would have turned out without him in my life. I firmly believe that if I’d met him under other circumstances, we would have been friends.
I’m saddened at losing him. I will always wonder if there’s something I could have done, even tho I know that isn’t so. I tried to hope he would get better, but I know he wouldn’t, and I felt the fear of losing him. I’m glad he didn’t suffer too long, but frankly I think he was taken too soon. A hundred years too soon for him to go. I will always miss him.
WE have lost Jeff. But he had a good life and lots of people loved him. He made a major difference in out lives and his deeds do continue to carry forward.
In strictest terms he lost his battle with cancer, but he won the game. Big time.
Goodbye Jeff. We love you.
Yeah. I was a bit teary at the time, and when I wrote this.
And I’m planning to pick up the story again soon, but Barbi and Kimi just barged in demanding I give them some air time too…
We all understand, Andy. Take your time and return when you’re ready. We’ll be here.
Yeah Buddy, what she said. We’ll be here.
I can imagine Barbi shouting and demanding more air time.
I’ve actually really enjoyed this series, the single panels where each character talks about their perspective on life and death. perhaps enjoyed is the wrong word… you know what I mean. I lost my father just 2 years ago – it was even more sudden than with Jeff, Dad just keeled over one sunday morning. Pulmonary Embolism, we didn’t even know he was ill. its been a life-changing thing for me and for Mom – still is. It will take a lot of time to sort through your emotions about it all, but rest assured there’s no right or wrong emotion, there just “is”. I think you’ve done the right thing in working through some of these emotions in the strip, through your characters. I went to stay with Mom for 2 weeks after Dad’s death – we found that the biggest help was talking through stuff, remembering, and being together. It was a time of intense, intense healing, and I hope you’ve been able to find the same process. *huggggggsss* Andy. things will get better.
Just thinking… Hypothetically, of course, if one were to kill a bad man, and feed him to the hogs, then the hogs grow up big and fat and feed people, it wouldn’t be homicide. It would be … recycling!
Killing a violent rapist, or for that matter any armed enemy before he/she kills you, is not a sin; murder of unarmed bystanders definitely is a sin. The mistranslations of the ’10 Commandments’ ignores the difference to the detriment of the people the affected churches are supposed to serve. The woman who kills a rapist in self defence should get a payment for destroying vermin, not harassment by the law and waste of her time in restraint.
For all of us who have lost relatives and close friends to ‘natural causes’, it’s never easy and each of us has a different way of dealing with it. Some hold a wake to reminisce about the best times with the deceased; some mourn their loss and often consume various intoxicants to dull the pain of the missing parts of themselves; some go quietly insane from the error of investing critical parts of themselves in someone they thought would live as long as their friends…
We’re lucky when the ones holding the wake manage to grab most of the rest of us and help all of us share in the karmic backwash and concentration the departed left behind. When the wound is bandaged well enough to start healing, we can progress past the separation and move into a future where our friend or companion becomes a pleasant memory instead of an excuse to buy a ticket on the Riverworld Express.
Karmic Backwash…
When my grandpa died I was only a teenager we traveled for two days to be at his funeral and it rained all the day of the ceremony. At the funeral one of his sisters said that it was fitting, he loved the rain. I’ll always remember that about him.
When my father died it felt too soon but I will always remember the night classes he taught and that as a new driver with a learners permit he let me drive us home after. I know that at times I baffled him… but I also know that I’ll see him again one day and he has a work to do beyond the veil.
Remember the good times.
It will get easier to bear. In time the sting will dull and the goodness will remain finally untarnished by the sadness of loss. It will Never be fully healed or fully accepted as “right”… You will Always Miss them.
/But/ in time, it will become tolerable.
Hugs, Andy–both my parents are gone, they were older when they had us all. I still talk aloud to them at times, and often have to check myself from calling mom on the phone. She departed in 2008. It does mend, slowly.
My deepest condolences to you and your family. I’m off to take my father in law for his radiation treatments. We are dealing with a 91yr old man with cancer of the vocal cords.
Sounds like he’s putting up a good fight. Best wishes for you and yours as well.
This brings to mind a certain Brad Paisley song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjO1F6oCab8 that, despite not being a fan of country music for the most part, I’m particularly fond of.
you didn’t lose him. you never will. The memories will always be there, just ability to make new ones with him is gone.