Reflection 1st Quarter

For people who have incurable cancer and for those who love them.

Today you've got the strength of a bull in your neck
And the strength of a bear in your arms,
But some 0' these days, some 0' these days,
You'll have a hand-to-hand struggle with bony Death,
And Death is bound to win.
James Weldon Johnson, "The Prodigal Son" in God's Trombones

Facing death is evitable, with all that right and wrong in this world, with all thats cruel and the viciousness of life taken away we read daily in the papers , the most unexpected blow to anyone will be death of someone close or the impending death.

When you know someone if gonna die and to live with that knowledge is something never so easy... many a times I watch TV shows where doctors have to break the news of death or illness there is no point of return. Telling someone they will die in a matter of time is a world of a difference.

Dying of old age is different but dying of an illness, being diagnosed with it is a burden I wish upon no living soul. This year 1 had left me another diagnosed to leave us and 3rd I learned not to long ago.

There is little that I can say to someone who is facing impending death that will ease his/her burden. I usually come back to what my father used to say to me (and what I now tell my children) when I was faced with an impossible and painful situation. He would tell me "Yes, it's terrible and it hurts --but that's the way it is."