A Death in the Family

Hey. Hope you’re good. I just wanted to stop by and remind you that one day you will die.

This isn’t meant to be sad or depressing. It’s just important to be reminded every now and then that we are mortal. We are temporary, just like our problems, our troubles, our struggles, our friends, family, teachers, and lovers.

One day you will die. The ones who love you the most will collapse in disbelief once they hear the news. The realisation of your passing will knock the air out of their lungs. There will be a funeral held on your behalf. The best flowers will be picked for you, the most religious of songs will be sung in your honor, and the sweatiest of priests will be called in to half-yell, half-preach to everyone who will attend.

If you die young, they will call it a waste of a life. If you die in an accident, whether it be plane, car, or stairs, they will call it a tragedy. If you die old they will speak of how a pillar was lost and young people who barely knew you will take off their hats, lower their heads, put their right hands over their chests, and parrot any and all praises from the ones who actually knew you and vouched for you.

People you barely considered friends or even acquaintances will attend your funeral. Colleagues who barely got to know you outside of work will have this weird pit in their stomachs because they don’t really know you but they feel like they did. Friends of friends will allow themselves to be dragged along to support your actual friends. But even though it’s a funeral, there will be a lot more smiling and laughing than you’d think.

Why? You ask.

Because they’ll be talking about you. They’ll talk about how funny your jokes were, how goofy your acting was, and how you always managed to get yourself in the most absurd situations. One person will lean back in their chair, almost falling over, and let out the most lively laugh to ever grace a funeral. You won’t be around to hear it, but if you were it would make you shiver with how full of life it was.

Another person will smile while tears try to break through their eyelids, recalling how you were there for them when they needed you most. Whether you brought them a pack of tampons, lent them money when they needed it, gave them a place to stay when they had nowhere to go, or were a much-needed shoulder to cry on when they got their heart broken. They will remember you, your kindness, and your smile.

Someone else will recall the struggles you went through in your life and how you overcame each one of them. They will remember you as the most resilient person they knew. They won’t get up to speak when it is time, but they will keep you in their heart and think of you whenever life gets tough. In the future, when life gets hard, they will ask themselves what you would do if you were in their situation. Once they find the answer they will smile, wipe away their tears, and act accordingly.

At your funeral, there will be laughter, tears, dancing, joy, and sadness. There will be guilt, mourning, pain, and regret.

There will be many people feeling many things, but you will be lying in your coffin, empty. Yes. Empty. Not the coffin. The coffin has you in it. You’re the one who will be empty. Because you will have lived your life to the fullest. You will have died empty because you will have given everything to everyone you ever met. Your wife or husband, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends and family, and anyone else lucky enough to meet you on your journey through life will speak highly of you, your bravery, your resilience, your wisdom, and your kindness.

Now. Obviously, I can’t see into the future, so this whole picture I painted is entirely fictional. But it doesn’t have to be. You are alive RIGHT NOW, but there’s no telling for how long. So, live! Live, now! Follow your dreams, kiss a boy, start a business, ask a girl out, learn to code, learn to write, learn to play the guitar, or learn to do a backflip or something. I don’t care what you do, just do it NOW.

You are mortal. Painfully so. You were born fragile, and over time have gotten considerably stronger, but you still remain quite fragile. So love with everything inside of you. Give with everything inside of you. Live with everything inside of you.

You, my friend, are a creature with boundless potential and power. You have the power to save the world or end it. However, one day you will die. So live, today. Love, today. Try something new, today.

Vienna waits for you.

— C.N.M.