ONE day, while standing on the balcony of a tall building, I looked down and saw a funeral taking place in a cemetery. From where I stood, I also saw next to the same graveyard, a football field, where a game was in progress. It was a strange feeling, seeing sorrowful emotions surrounding death on one side, and on the other, watching euphoria, excitement and the joy of living!
Life, doesn’t stop, just because of death I realized. Joy, doesn’t come to a halt, due to sorrow. Both continue side by side, and as I pondered on this deeper, my mind goes to a battlefield, where soldiers, seeing their comrades and friends fall, cannot stop, nor cry in sadness, but have to plough on to gain victory. I remember many years ago, my father passed away at home. I was filled with grief, as I laid his body on his bed and waited for the coffin to arrive. Suddenly, there was a call from my manager asking if it was a holiday for the men. I realised that many were casual labourers who would lose their earnings and customers waiting for jobs to finish, “No!” I said, “Our work goes on!”
My manager and I then discussed the plan for the day, which took around half an hour, and I then returned sorrowfully to my father’s room. I remember speaking to my man and my emotions screaming to walk away, but all along my mind telling me, “The world won’t stop for you!”
A few years later, when my mother passed away, a wall in my society fell into the next compound from a great height and the next day a huge group of people from the neighbouring building came to threaten us. “I can’t think, I’ve just heard that my mother passed away!” I whispered. “We are sorry!” They said, “But we need a solution right now!”
Even as we face an impatient, slightly callous world, maybe that’s just the jolt we need to bring us back to reality. Reality for me was that day on the balcony, as I watched both funeral and football match; that life and death happen alongside, joy and sorrow take place together, that maybe, even as you hear about the death of a loved one, comes the news of a grandchild’s birth.
Grieve, but gently equip yourself to handling life, as the world won’t stop for you..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
