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Provided by the compucert Last night I visited my mother after work to get the full story.
Apparently my uncle had gone out of the home briefly on Tuesday. When he came home his wife was lying on the floor already dead from an overdose of prescription medications. My uncle never left her alone for long as he was always terribly concerned for her well being as she's been battling this severe depression for decades.
Another aunt from the island left a brief message on my brother's answering machine Wednesday morning letting him know what had happened. As the day progressed we forund out what I menitoned above.
A suicide leaves open all sorts of questions...
Legally, the medical examiner has to perform an autopsy to be sure tehre was no foul play involved.
Religiously, being Catholic, suicide is the worst abomination imaginable. In Catholicism it's believed that when you commit suicide your soul is damned to an eternity in purgatory. This little story has left the already grieving distraught. As if it might have any bearing, they are considering cremation. My brother actually had some spiritual words that helped set my mind at ease about this situation. He assured me that God is benevolent and forgiving. Even as terrible an abomination as suicide is, God will forgive.
Admittedly, I'm not a very religious person. I'm not Catholic either. However, the assurance that a loved one is still being cared for even afetr such a desperate measure, removes a huge burden from my mind. Thanks to my brother, I'm in a far better state that I was yesterday at this time.
But tragedies like this serve to remind us that we have precious little time on this world and we must try to fill that time with as many wondrous and amazing things as we can. You don't have to make your mark in time and history, just make your mark on your life and do the best you can.
Apparently my uncle had gone out of the home briefly on Tuesday. When he came home his wife was lying on the floor already dead from an overdose of prescription medications. My uncle never left her alone for long as he was always terribly concerned for her well being as she's been battling this severe depression for decades.
Another aunt from the island left a brief message on my brother's answering machine Wednesday morning letting him know what had happened. As the day progressed we forund out what I menitoned above.
A suicide leaves open all sorts of questions...
Legally, the medical examiner has to perform an autopsy to be sure tehre was no foul play involved.
Religiously, being Catholic, suicide is the worst abomination imaginable. In Catholicism it's believed that when you commit suicide your soul is damned to an eternity in purgatory. This little story has left the already grieving distraught. As if it might have any bearing, they are considering cremation. My brother actually had some spiritual words that helped set my mind at ease about this situation. He assured me that God is benevolent and forgiving. Even as terrible an abomination as suicide is, God will forgive.
Admittedly, I'm not a very religious person. I'm not Catholic either. However, the assurance that a loved one is still being cared for even afetr such a desperate measure, removes a huge burden from my mind. Thanks to my brother, I'm in a far better state that I was yesterday at this time.
But tragedies like this serve to remind us that we have precious little time on this world and we must try to fill that time with as many wondrous and amazing things as we can. You don't have to make your mark in time and history, just make your mark on your life and do the best you can.
1 comments:
So true so true. I don't consider myself religious either even though I was raised and Orthodox Russian (which isn't too different from Catholosism). At a certain age I started to question things and they didn't quite gel with what I found to be the proven, factual truths of the world. Still, what do we really know as human beings who really have a long way to go as far as a real understanding of "things"? While I don't cling to what I consider modern fairy tales or outdated belief systems still so popular today, I'd like to believe that there is something greater than us and that there is more than what we experience here on earth. I personally don't believe in the old biblical story of hell, which threatens people into believing or else (playing upon the darkest recesses of our imaginations), and know that your aunt is NOT "burning" in eternal damnation. If only more people had the will and the strength and courage to abandon such horrible systems of belief and allowed their minds to evolve (sadly the "e" word has always had a negative connotation to it amongst the fundamentalist types).
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