Death

Chapter 16 was a tough chapter for me to read, because a little over a year ago, I lost my wonderful dad to one the the worst forms of cancer there is - pancreatic.  It was interesting to me how much this chapter reflected the emotions and the steps of the grief process that myself and my family have gone through and are still going through.  My personal belief is that we will all be reunited with our loved ones.  We might leave our bodies behind, but our souls will make the transition to a different plane (heaven).  This makes sense to me, since we are all made of energy and energy never dies, it just takes on a different form.  I do wonder if our loved ones and others can come back to visit us, whether as a ghost or another form of life.  I know that there's been a lot of research done on this subject and I would like to believe that there is someway to communicate with our loved ones in the afterlife, but it makes me wonder how and what kind of methods could be used to receive actual proof of this phenonomen.

I guess if I could talk to the authors of this text I would ask them why more isn't being done in our society to educate and discuss different death experiences and the methods of dealing with grief.  Why aren't there coping strategies that are acutually taught as part of a school curriculum starting at about the age of six? 

I learned from this chapter that the grief process isn't a step-by-step series of emotions where you proceed through each step in a certain order.  A person can actually go back and forth between certain emotions many times before their grieving process ends and sometimes it can take many years (if ever) to move on and rebuild their life without their loved one.  Now that I have this information it will help me help my mom through her grieving process as she mourns my dad.

Losing my dad was one of my greatest fears in life and unfortunately it came true and I've had to deal with it, a lot sooner than I ever thought I was going to have to - he was only 69 years old.  It was an awful disease that took his life prematurely.  However, he did get to be in his own home when he passed; hospice helped him with his pain management and maintaining his dignity.  I can vouch for hospice as being an extremely wonderful, compassionate organization that helped both my dad and our family in his final days.  His death was not a very peaceful one, but at least he was surrounded by my mom, sister, and myself as he passed to the other side, where he was free from suffering and finally at peace.

I think, if I had unlimited resources, I would research and investigate different mediums and their authenticity, and if I found any that seemed to be credible, I would try to use them to communicate with my dad.  What piqued my curiosity is, what did he see as he left this reality that we live in?  Was it a long tunnel with a bright light at the end, like I've heard and read about in near death experiences. or was it other family members and friends that had gone before him, ready to help him with the next part of his journey?  I don't know, none of us really do, we can speculate all we want, but until it's our turn, it will remain a mystery.