A Better Way

As I mentioned in last week's blog, my brother passed away unexpectedly while I was away on vacation.  I'm pretty much okay with death.  I realize it's just another part of life.  I believe that although the body dies, the spirit, soul, essence of the person never dies.  It lives on forever.  I've experienced the passing of my parents, my mother and father-in-law, all of my aunts and uncles except one, cousins, friends and acquaintances.  But so far, nothing has been as difficult for me as this... the passing of a sibling.

Besides having to deal with a loss emotionally and spiritually, there's the "business" of death.  When you should be allowing yourself time to grieve and feel your loss and pain, you have to deal with business.  It's different for everyone.  In my brother's case, he lived in an apartment.  We had 14 days from the date of death to get the apartment cleaned out.  He died on a Thursday.  We didn't find out until Saturday evening.  We couldn't start the process until Monday because we didn't have keys and the office wasn't open until then.  We were already five days into it.

I understand that for them it's a business.  They need to clean, paint, shampoo carpets and get a new tenant in so they can continue to make money.  But for us it was a very difficult time.  We had to set that aside and take care of business.  I really don't know how things could be done differently, but it seems like there should be a better way.

Love,  Paula