What Happens After Death?
A friend of mine died this last week.
It was expected, she had known for several years now that she was going to die and all her friends and family knew too, but knowing what was going to happen doesn't make it any easier. We are all still sad about our loss. We are all still sad that a friend has died. We are all still sad that a husband has lost a wife and his best friend. We are all still sad that a child has lost her mother.
My friend and I had spoken many times about what we thought would happen after death; if we were frightened of dying and even what we wanted to happen at our funerals. We talked about funerals we had been to, ones that were big celebrations of life, ones that were terrible and dismal and hard.
I explained that I personally wasn't frightened of death, I didn't want it to come too soon, but that if it did I would take the news in my usual way. I explained that what frightened me most, was leaving my friends and family behind to deal with everything, which was why I was prepared.
We both decided that our funerals would be about the living us, the us we wanted to be remembered as and sure there would be tears, but we hoped there would be happy ones too and there may have been some talk about fancy dress being worn to hers. Now that she has gone, it feels wrong, but I promised and so I will promise to wear something that would make her laugh.
I had explained that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that one day, we'll be resurrected and that we'll be able to be with our friends and family again. I even showed her this video.
It was expected, she had known for several years now that she was going to die and all her friends and family knew too, but knowing what was going to happen doesn't make it any easier. We are all still sad about our loss. We are all still sad that a friend has died. We are all still sad that a husband has lost a wife and his best friend. We are all still sad that a child has lost her mother.
My friend and I had spoken many times about what we thought would happen after death; if we were frightened of dying and even what we wanted to happen at our funerals. We talked about funerals we had been to, ones that were big celebrations of life, ones that were terrible and dismal and hard.
I explained that I personally wasn't frightened of death, I didn't want it to come too soon, but that if it did I would take the news in my usual way. I explained that what frightened me most, was leaving my friends and family behind to deal with everything, which was why I was prepared.
We both decided that our funerals would be about the living us, the us we wanted to be remembered as and sure there would be tears, but we hoped there would be happy ones too and there may have been some talk about fancy dress being worn to hers. Now that she has gone, it feels wrong, but I promised and so I will promise to wear something that would make her laugh.
I had explained that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that one day, we'll be resurrected and that we'll be able to be with our friends and family again. I even showed her this video.
Those who knew my friend are going to be sad for a while, but we know she didn't want us to and so we will try hard to find joy, remembering that she wanted us to find joy in cake and our children and friendships and many more things, just like she did.
She wanted us to follow our passions, and so we will. We shall take each day as it comes and we'll wait until we meet again.