It is, I have no doubt, a remorse shared by more than me; namely, the regret and self-reproach at having only fully appreciated someone after they have gone. Granted the contrition may be mournfully augmented beyond the need for penitence. Yet It remains one of those unavoidable truths that in matters such as these, we’re always too late.
And though much has been written about the subject, about remembering to say those kind words before time has run out, about overcoming those silly obstructions to reunification, about enjoying the company of old and long forgotten friends, about being thankful for what we had; yes, in spite of all that, it nonetheless requires the pain of loss fully to appreciate the person who is no longer whinnying among us.
Contrary to the overwhelming finality of the loss, it is equally ineluctable that the loss, though hurtful, will oddly trigger fond and colourful moments involving both you and the deceased. Having read many of the obituaries from C. R. Gamble Funeral Home & Chapel Inc. I am as always staggered to learn the varied, sometimes complicated and intriguing past of so many people.
C. R. Gamble Funeral Home & Chapel Inc.
And of course, as a 76 year old former drinker and smoker, I would be fooling no one to overlook saying that the obituaries, involving as they do so many whom I have known for a long time, constitute a moderate indefinable threat. My personal outlook as a thriving member of the community is subject to impending quarantine.
Notwithstanding that distasteful matter of inevitability, I snap my fingers at the prospect howsoever retailed. In this, as in most other things I have done or thought, I am guided by nothing more important than instinct. Of course I haven’t a clue when to turn onto the downhill walk through the wavering green meadow to the unseen end. And until I do I shall stir the embers of whatever fire remains. It helps too to recall that getting out of bed as a youth wasn’t all the charm we might think it to have been. And on the subject of the dear departed…