Week 3 Rene

A Student Response From:

Rene

This has been a month of death. My nephew passed from cancer, and two friends from my past died of Covid-19. Neither of my old friends were vaccinated and both lived in Texas. I hadn’t spoken to them in a while, but I was told they were exercising their freedom. John Ceballos was an old paratrooper, much older than myself, and he was a community leader that touched many lives, he gave me a job when I was down on my luck. James Walker was fifteen years younger than me and, when we first met, he used to call me “gramps”. I was in the war with Walker, and he had a philosophy to never speak bad of anyone. He was a quiet dude, loved to ride his Harley. I’ve always felt that we died to make room for the living, that passing was accompanied by birth but, I haven’t heard of any births this month. Aside from missing people, I think that passing from this existence is probably a good thing. The next place, whatever that may be, should be a lot nicer than here.
A photo of a man in a hospital room wearing a yellow hospital gown over his black clothing, holding a baby perhaps six months old. He's looking off camera and away from the baby as they sit next to the hospital bed.

Comments 1

  1. So many people around me, recently, have been dealing with death. Not just COVID, old age, cancer, unexplained emergency medical situations, etc…

    I remember when I was about 11 realizing I had never seen a dead human. Then there was a string of death in my family. I don’t think, as a culture, we have very good tools to navigate this. I know I don’t feel well-equipped. Maybe it’s time we begin to figure this out.

    I am sorry for your losses.

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