I wrote an article for my blog in 2017 after my Uncle Jerry died. I wondered, “How can the world move on when I’m hurting so badly?”
I was again reminded of this when I found out a friend from high school lost her son. He was 35 years old. I cannot imagine that pain, that loss.
And I was slammed – again – about how many millions of people in the world are dealing with the death of a loved one. It doesn’t matter why. What we are inundated with now are stats and numbers and charts and percentages. And not many “Let’s stop and remember these people, these families.”
My article from 2017 –
“When someone dies…a billion stops”
I sometimes wonder…and I wondered a lot when my Mom died…
Why didn’t the world stop?
But it did.
I was reminded of this just recently when my Uncle Jerry died. I hadn’t seen him much in 17 years (he lived in Delaware, I lived in New Mexico and now North Dakota and didn’t get “home” much), but I did see him two years ago.
And now, when he died, I thought, “Why don’t people stop?”
Why don’t people acknowledge his life?
But people did stop.
His wife stopped. His kids stopped. His grandchildren stopped. His twin brother stopped. His nieces, nephews, cousins, stopped. His in-laws stopped.
Everybody who read his obituary stopped. Everyone who had any cognitive recognition of him…stopped.
I posted his passing on my FB page, and friends who never met him stopped.
If even for just a moment, even for a blink of an eye, Uncle Jerry meant something to millions of people.
So, when you see a loved one’s passing, stop. Take a moment. Imagine the loss. Imagine the love. Imagine the hole left from that person’s passing.
Just stop.
