"We are constantly reminded of what really matters in this world, and we want to let her know we will be thinking of her and she will be in our prayers."
Constantly hitting refresh, waiting for the news to break, and the ghosts of my past whisper once again in my memory. Please, if there is a God, not this one too. Not this one too.
And then something similar to PTSD comes rushing in. I wonder if one ever really gets over traumatic memories of loss. You think it's gone until something triggers it... and it's back, bang, like it happened yesterday. It tends to pass quicker as the years roll on; maybe it's acceptance that comes with making it to middle-age. You begin to expect these things will happen. Or in my case, maybe it's just practice.
Anyway, back to Mike. He's right.
The trick comes in deciding what "really matters"; how you want to spend the rest of your time, who you want to spend it with.
I've been thinking long and hard about that lately.
More later... for now, I know how I want to spend today. And that's all any of us really has, anyway.