In the End (a fictional story)

In the end, what really happens to us? What do you believe happens to you when you die; your body, your mind, your soul. It would have to depend on your beliefs...right?

As a child, I try to remember what I was told happened to my grand mom after she died? First she was lying in her bed at home, because she was really tired and needed to rest. Then, unresponsive to us talking with her, she was taken to the hospital and lay there in the bed so she could get even more rest. And so the doctors, who know more about these things than any of us, can try to help grand mom get the rest that she needs. Finally, I started to notice that the family grownups began to gather in the hospital room and they all wanted more of the other grownups in the family to come to the hospital too.

There I was, seeing the saddening faces of everyone. All the while no one would tell me any more than, “Grand mom just needs to rest.” But in my heart, I knew that something else was going on. Something that the grownups thought I just wouldn't understand, so they decide not to explain it to me. And so I sit there quietly, unnoticed, the proverbial fly on the wall; not to mention that children were usually shooed out of hospital rooms in order to shield their tiny minds from the sadness of the moment.

Finally, mom took me by the hand and lead me out of grand moms hospital room, away from the rest of the family, to an empty waiting room. Here she tried to explain to me that even though grand mom loves me very much, it's time for her to go.

“Go where mom?”, I asked (like the innocent child that I was).
“Grand mom is going to see God honey”, Mom replies. “You know how Reverend Johns teaches us that each of us will see God someday? Well, today just might be that day for grand mom."
“But...I didn't get a chance to tell her good-bye”, I said.
“Oh baby, she knows that you love her. And she loves you very much too. We don't really need to be able to say good-bye to someone we love because we will all see each other again some day."
“But when?", I tried. "I just don't want to forget about grand mom if I have to wait too long before I see her again.”

At this point, all mom could do was take me into her arms and hold me tight. Mom just wanted me to know that I was not alone [at that moment]; that I was surrounded by a family that loves me very much.