I've been very lucky in that aside from my grandmother, I haven't had to endure losing anyone in my family that was close to me. However, a week ago, a neighbor passed away quietly without anyone knowing.
It took about a week before anyone missed him as he was alone when it happened. I only knew him in passing due to the volunteer work that I do here, and had just recently found out that this relatively young man had cancer.
Both of them tried to keep their illnesses under wraps, and were the type who wouldn't want to burden others and cause them to worry. I last spoke to the latest guy Monday June 24th, as he marveled over the colors of some new tech gadgets that I'd just bought.
That was the last I saw him.
I recall how surprised I was when I learned about his health problems as he looked so vital on the outside while he was suffering on the inside.
Some people think that he knew the end was near, and in our last conversation we talked about the first guy who had passed. I shared with him what I told the other guy about what my relatives learned from patients who'd had near-death experiences, and that I had no doubt that there was something else beyond this life.
I shared the sequence of events that they reported, and my absolute belief in God. He asked me what made me certain that there is a higher power, and I told him that the proof was all around us.
The very planet that we're standing on. The Moon, the Sun and the other stars in the heavens, in fact, the Universe itself bore witness to the fact that only a God could create something out of nothing.
I went over all of the facts that there were too many coincidences involved in the creation of Earth itself, for their not to be intelligent design involved.
We're in the perfect spot for life to thrive. A little closer to the Sun and we roast like Venus. A little farther away, and we freeze like Mars. Without the Moon, no tides. We're the perfect size as well, if we were as large as a giant exoplanet, it would be torture just to move around due to the heightened effects of gravity weighing us down.
The footprint of God, so to speak.
The atmosphere, the spacing of the continents and the tilting of Earth itself all combine into a delicious stew that keeps us all breathing the breath of life that God breathes into us at birth.
He seemed to find some solace in that, and I hope it brought him peace when he transitioned to the other side. Life is precious, and the witness to that is the effect he had on the people that he touched each and every day. Don't take anything for granted, and live life to the fullest.