Death

[shmack72]

Death is weird. I mean, I've experienced it before- death and grief. My grandparents died when I was 17 and 19, both deaths were intense in different ways (my grandma got very ill and died a few months later, my grandpa was sudden and unexpected) and were really really hard on me

Comments

[dancingpuppet]

I think what makes it even harder is the fact we're abroad. Realizing that someone is gone and won't come back is much harder when we can't see it with our own eyes.

And yes, the death of someone young is much harder, especially in this case, when it's someone we admire and who has inspired us in one way or another.

Serge and John were two of the people (among other SGers) who inspired me to pursue my dream to live in Asia so I could travel and discover local cultures there. In that way they changed my life, definitely for the better.

Last summer when I visited California my brother told me about his ex-boss and friend who died in a car crash a few weeks earlier, in his early 30s. This was the person who inspired him to move to America in the first place, whom he knew very well and admired, so he was also in shock. In a way this is also why Alex and I are in America today, even if I never met Greg nor knew him at all. His death made me realize how isolated my brother and sister-in-law were, and the fact that if anything happened to my brother this would be disastrous for Yuko, who doesn't speak English very well. It also made me realize that I needed to take the lead in this big decision in our life if I didn't want Alex to regret it later on.

It is heartbreaking to see young and talented people die, but it's also sad that we need this kind of reminders to realize that we need to seize the day and make the most of the short time we have on this planet. :{