Animam Sempiternam

As years go by, life continues its course and we all grow older, hopefully wiser for it.  Whether you are a believer or not, each Holiday season that comes and goes gives you a time to pause and appreciate what you have... And also remember what you've lost.

Easter time has had a most special double significance for me, for the last seven years; and it will be so for as long as I live.  Even as daily routines and preparatives for what appears to be a 1001 different things encumber my thoughts and occupy my time, that pause inevitably comes and I find myself exactly as I was, that fateful day, seven years ago...

March 28, 2006.

After barely celebrating his birthday on the 14th (he had stopped celebrating them, outright, when he was younger and still healthy) my father didn't feel well on the 19th and I took it upon myself to bring him to the hospital, just to be on the safe side. It might have been a mistake on my part. But, at first, it appeared to have worked out just fine: within 24 hours, he was feeling better. Still, they decided to keep him under observation for another day.  I didn't object; I probably should have.  I couldn't stay by his side all the time, though, and that was probably my third mistake right there. Something was changed in his medication between day one and three. And then, the worst-case scenario enfolded; my father fell into a coma on the 22nd. He was hooked up to a life-support machine, at my request, and we kept hope for another six days.  On the 28th, in the presence of many, it was finally concluded that there was no hope anymore - and we let him go.

It's been seven years - it could just as well have taken place yesterday.

If you are a believer, of course, the coincidence that it all took place so close to his birthday, just as spring was coming as well, during Easter or just before it - all of this can only make your heart rejoice throughout the sorrow.  Because as he left his mortal shell, everything seemed to be screaming it at us who remained: his soul lives on. Like Christ's triumphant Rise, his soul rose to another level of being, another level of life, eternal life.  And this so soon after the anniversary of his birth onto this world; his birth onto the next.  Spring symbolizes rebirth; where everything seems dead and lifeless, life comes again.  And Easter being not, for the believer, a mere occasion to indulge in chocolates (something my father wasn't fond of, anyways) but truly signifying in the most splendid way The Promise made to us all that Death is vanquished and that there is Life Eternal awaiting - for he who believes in Jesus-Christ.

If you are a believer, no matter what circumstances in which you may have lost a dear one, each Easter should renew your hope, your joy, your assurance that you will see that dear one again.

If you are not a believer, holidays such as Easter can still be the ideal time for a reflective pause, since it is a break from it all.  And no matter who we are and what we do, we all need such breaks.

For me, Easter has become about those two best friends of mine: Jesus... And Dad.

We will see each other again.
For the soul is eternal - it cannot be any other way.
And, until then, life goes on...

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