Remembering Life and Death

Joe’s earliest memory goes back to when he was 40, after his electroconvulsive therapy.  One of those first memories was holding his newborn nephew.  For Joe, it was the first baby he ever held, or even saw, because he didn’t remember other babies that he might have held or seen.  He didn’t remember other nieces and nephews being born or how it felt to be an uncle several times over.  He only knew how he felt for the first time, at the age of 40, to be the proud uncle of baby Jason.

Today marked the end of that beginning and created a new kind of memory for Joe–the memory of someone dying. Joe’s 18-year-old nephew was killed in a roll-over crash last Wednesday evening.  The Celebration of his Life and subsequent burial was today.  Another tragic accident for this family; another life cut way too short; another child taken away from his/her parents.  

The birth of a child, the beginning of a memory.  May the all the wonderful memories of joy and happiness that Jason’s life brought to Uncle Joe and the rest of his family never be erased.