A neighbour got stabbed in his neck while he was in Thailand last week and he later succumbed to his injury.
Another neigbour died a few days earlier from medical complications .. a mother aged 50 leaving behind her young umarried daughters... everyone in the family was devastated.
Untimely deaths.. which makes what's already difficult even harder.
I never like to attend funerals .. the ones i hv were those of family. And i had braced myself through all the time...feeling numb. Mainly because.. it feels me with much mixed emotions. Do u feel glad for the deceased that he or she is on the way to something better...? Or do u let urself in with all the sorrow around u coz it is end of the road and thats all there is? Hard to fathom this tho.. that life can hv such a meaningless end.
As i pondered much on this subject various times in my life, i realised one thing... there is much compassionate work behind the process of natural death.
Ive seen it happen. The physical and mental changes. Above all.. i see people about to die letting go of their masks in the final stages approaching death. The soul shines through when the mass and senses breaks down...mostly.
A Couple of Days to Hours Prior to Death
The person is moving closer to their destination. There may be a surge of energy as they get closer. They may want to get out of bed and talk to loved ones. They may ask for food when they haven’t eaten in days. This surge of energy may be less noticeable but is usually used as a final physical expression before moving on.
The surge of energy is usually short lived and then the previous signs become more pronounced as death approaches. My grandmother happily asked to be showered, dressed and fed jus an hour before she passed on.
Breathing becomes more irregular and often slower. “Cheyne-Stokes” breathing, rapid breathes followed by periods of no breathes, may occur. Congestion can increase causing loud, rattled breathing.
Hands and feet may become blotchy and purplish (mottled). This mottling may slowly work it’s way up the arms and legs. Lips and nail beds are bluish or purple. The person usually becomes unresponsive and may have their eyes open or semi-open but not seeing their surroundings. It is widely accepted that hearing is the last sense to go so it is recommended that loved ones sit with and talk to the dying during this time.
Eventually, breathing will cease altogether and the heart stops. Death has occurred. They have reached their final destination in their journey.
"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”
”Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says:
“There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: ‘Here she comes!”
And that is dying. Henry Van Dyke
Another neigbour died a few days earlier from medical complications .. a mother aged 50 leaving behind her young umarried daughters... everyone in the family was devastated.
Untimely deaths.. which makes what's already difficult even harder.
I never like to attend funerals .. the ones i hv were those of family. And i had braced myself through all the time...feeling numb. Mainly because.. it feels me with much mixed emotions. Do u feel glad for the deceased that he or she is on the way to something better...? Or do u let urself in with all the sorrow around u coz it is end of the road and thats all there is? Hard to fathom this tho.. that life can hv such a meaningless end.
As i pondered much on this subject various times in my life, i realised one thing... there is much compassionate work behind the process of natural death.
Ive seen it happen. The physical and mental changes. Above all.. i see people about to die letting go of their masks in the final stages approaching death. The soul shines through when the mass and senses breaks down...mostly.
A Couple of Days to Hours Prior to Death
The person is moving closer to their destination. There may be a surge of energy as they get closer. They may want to get out of bed and talk to loved ones. They may ask for food when they haven’t eaten in days. This surge of energy may be less noticeable but is usually used as a final physical expression before moving on.
The surge of energy is usually short lived and then the previous signs become more pronounced as death approaches. My grandmother happily asked to be showered, dressed and fed jus an hour before she passed on.
Breathing becomes more irregular and often slower. “Cheyne-Stokes” breathing, rapid breathes followed by periods of no breathes, may occur. Congestion can increase causing loud, rattled breathing.
Hands and feet may become blotchy and purplish (mottled). This mottling may slowly work it’s way up the arms and legs. Lips and nail beds are bluish or purple. The person usually becomes unresponsive and may have their eyes open or semi-open but not seeing their surroundings. It is widely accepted that hearing is the last sense to go so it is recommended that loved ones sit with and talk to the dying during this time.
Eventually, breathing will cease altogether and the heart stops. Death has occurred. They have reached their final destination in their journey.
"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”
”Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says:
“There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: ‘Here she comes!”
And that is dying. Henry Van Dyke
