in memory
My mom called a few days ago to tell me my cousin Sally had died. She had been struggling with cancer for a number of years now, and in the end, she was just too thin and too tired to struggle any more. She was 49 years old; the first of my generation to go.
I don't know what to do with death.
If I were a religious person, I could appeal to a) the notion that Sally has found peace in the loving arms of the Deity and/or b) the notion that The Lord moves in mysterious ways and that there is a reason and pattern to this that my puny mortal brain cannot (yet) comprehend.
However, I am not a religious person, and Sally's death seems to me a ridiculous and deeply unjust waste of love and vitality and talent.
Sally was one of my Hawaiian cousins, whom I always viewed as impressively sophisticated and witty. The five Lent girls (Lia, Sally, Laurie, Janie, and Stacey) managed to be simultaneously impeccably behaved and deliciously wicked good fun. I envied them their ease and social grace, which they undoubtedly got from my Aunt Diane and her mother, my Baba. Baba died at a proper old age, but Diane was cut down by brain cancer a few years ago -- the first of her generation to die. Now Sally follows her mother in that dubious honour.
There is nothing I can do for her children, or her husband Brian, or her sisters or father who will mourn her far more ferociously than I. As I don't believe in purgatory or even an afterlife, there is nothing I can do for Sally's soul.
But maybe I can do a small something towards reducing the possibility that other families will suffer as Sally's are now.
In July, I will be running in a Race for Life in Sally's memory, to benefit Cancer Research UK. Please go to my donation website http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/melaniewright and donate as generously as you can.
At a typical credit card rate (according to FXConverter):
£ 2.00 = $ 3.58
£ 3.00 = $ 5.37
£ 5.00 = $ 8.95
£ 6.00 = $10.73
£ 8.50 = $15.21
£10.00 = $17.89
£11.50 = $20.57
£15.00 = $26.84
£20.00 = $35.78
£50.00 = $89.45
It won't help Sally, and I doubt it will make much difference to those who love and mourn her. But it's something, one small thing, I can do to spit Death in the eye.
PS If you want to pimp this on your own blog, I'd love you forever.
I don't know what to do with death.
If I were a religious person, I could appeal to a) the notion that Sally has found peace in the loving arms of the Deity and/or b) the notion that The Lord moves in mysterious ways and that there is a reason and pattern to this that my puny mortal brain cannot (yet) comprehend.
However, I am not a religious person, and Sally's death seems to me a ridiculous and deeply unjust waste of love and vitality and talent.
Sally was one of my Hawaiian cousins, whom I always viewed as impressively sophisticated and witty. The five Lent girls (Lia, Sally, Laurie, Janie, and Stacey) managed to be simultaneously impeccably behaved and deliciously wicked good fun. I envied them their ease and social grace, which they undoubtedly got from my Aunt Diane and her mother, my Baba. Baba died at a proper old age, but Diane was cut down by brain cancer a few years ago -- the first of her generation to die. Now Sally follows her mother in that dubious honour.
There is nothing I can do for her children, or her husband Brian, or her sisters or father who will mourn her far more ferociously than I. As I don't believe in purgatory or even an afterlife, there is nothing I can do for Sally's soul.
But maybe I can do a small something towards reducing the possibility that other families will suffer as Sally's are now.
In July, I will be running in a Race for Life in Sally's memory, to benefit Cancer Research UK. Please go to my donation website http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/melaniewright and donate as generously as you can.
At a typical credit card rate (according to FXConverter):
£ 2.00 = $ 3.58
£ 3.00 = $ 5.37
£ 5.00 = $ 8.95
£ 6.00 = $10.73
£ 8.50 = $15.21
£10.00 = $17.89
£11.50 = $20.57
£15.00 = $26.84
£20.00 = $35.78
£50.00 = $89.45
It won't help Sally, and I doubt it will make much difference to those who love and mourn her. But it's something, one small thing, I can do to spit Death in the eye.
PS If you want to pimp this on your own blog, I'd love you forever.