Recently, I had to announce the death of my mother to her community

Deaths in our society are  traditionally announced through an obituary.

Some people have to go through too much in their lives. On November 12th I lost a good friend and former roommate Robyn. She was 27 years old and died very suddenly of a thrombosis in her leg. These past few days I find myself thinking a lot about her and the time following her death. She was an active member of my church community - a member of the choir and the board. Her loss was felt acutely at church - it really shook us all up that someone who was the picture of health could die so suddenly of natural causes.

 A few years ago I stumbled upon this poem. There was no author mentioned in the resource in which I found it, and I've often found it a valuable reading to use (especially right before an interment) as it really does (to me at least) put life and its purpose (even with all its struggles and challenges) into some sort of perspective. I just thought I'd share it.

Have you ever thought about the possibility that they don't exist?

Hi all,

As some of you know, my mother passed away last week.  I don't intend on this being a thread to express condolances but rather one where we talk about how to keep memories alive, or how to cement them in our minds to live with us forever.

I have said that I worked hard to remember my dad's voice ( he died in 2002) .  I can clearly see me opening the door each month when they visited, him walking in, giving me a big hug and saying  "Hello love"

Dear Wondercafe Family,

Words are not enough to express my gratitude for your support and love shown to me and the busygang over the past 2 1/2 months since my Dad had a stroke.  At a time when my emotions were all over the place, my heart was heavy and my body was exhausted, I could slump myself into a chair in front of my computer and breathe in the love and warmth that radiated off the screen and into my heart.   Your messages helped and I read them over and over again. 

Our recent discussions of death and after death have got me thinking.

I rarely do a service where the body and casket are present.  I also rarely do a service with a funeral home involved.  Most now are cremations and most use an alternative service (originally a co-op but I don't know if it still is) in Thunder Bay.  About half the time we do a comittal of ashes immediately following the service and half the time they wait for a later date.

 What do you think about this "doomsday machine"?

They were not able to start it up last year, because "it wasn't ready". Now I heard that the people behind it are going to try again this year, and this time, "it should be ready".

Personally I find it hard to comprehend how such experiments with Destiny are normal - sure, we may end up finding something great and amazing about life! But there is still just this tiny possibility that they may create a Black Hole. And send this galaxy AND us into Oblivion.

About seven years ago, I was challenged with the idea of where Satan came from and told that the ancient Hebrews didn’t believe in Satan. Well, that just didn’t fly with me because I knew that the Torah (the five books of Moses) was the foundation for the Psalms and the Prophets (the rest of the Old Testament writings) and the Old Testament was the foundation for the New Testament writing such as the gospels and the apostolic writings. And I knew, or at least I thought I knew, the Old Testament clearly taught about Satan.