Life Is Short

LIFE IS SHORT

Anonymous

       I believe life is short – a notion that has never been clearer to me than it has recently been over these last few months. Life is such a precious thing, but when it is abruptly cut the thought of how brief it is, is further ingrained within us. November 21, 2006 is a day that I will never forget – forever imprinted in my mind. At about a quarter to 6, I awoke to the most deafening and terrifying screams that echoed through the atmosphere. Jumping petrified out of my bed, my initial thought was the house was on fire and I had to get out of the house immediately. That idea was quickly thrown out when I turned to my side where my 4-month old baby cousin rested soundlessly asleep.

     She resembled an angel lying on the white fluffy pillow in the center of the bed. Touching her face, it felt like an ice cube fresh out the freezer. Her naturally flushed pink cheeks were deep blue and her hands felt like icicles recovering from a fresh coat of snow. She wasn’t breathing and no air flowed from her delicate lips. She was lifeless. Dead. The earsplitting cries were that of my 15-year-old sister standing at the bedroom door. From the estimated time of death, the baby died minutes before we awoke and saw her body.

     I tried to think maybe if I woke up a little earlier then maybe the infant would have made it but all I could think of was the question of why her life ended at such a young innocent age. Time passed on, but the anxiety of the death always lingered. The beginning of the year 2007 the memories of that horrid experience of death were made relevant once again after three of my close friends lost their lives days apart from each other. The first one was only twenty years old and minutes before the clock struck 12 on New Years, her boyfriend accidentally shot her in the head while putting his gun away in the glove compartment of her car. She was a kind-hearted person who would go out of her way for anybody, and just like that her life was gone. In the emergency room she tried to hold on, but the doctors said if she were to live, she would be nothing but a vegetable without a face since her face was blown off.

     It was difficult taking the death of my baby cousin and one of my best friends so close in time to each other, but the coping was worse when just days later two more of my friends met their untimely deaths. The two girls were only 20 and 21 returning anxiously for a break from college to surprise their family and friends back home. Driving their last day through the busy streets of the Florida turnpike, the girls snaked through traffic trying to make it home before dark. I can recall talking to them and how excited they were to come back after being gone for a long time, but at the same time mourning the death of our friend that died days before. At about 5 that evening, the girls were still not heard from and an eerie feeling overwhelmed my body as I received a call that plays like a tape recorder constantly. The girls crashed into a tree trying to avoid an 18-wheeler that turned erratically in front of them onto the highway. Trying to avoid the massive truck, my friend swerved into a swampy ditch, which caused the jeep to smash head-on into a tree, wrapping and snapping in half around it like a snapper. It was said that the SUV was so severely crushed into a box that from the appearance you would never know that it was a full-size truck.

     One of the girls were thrown several feet from the car and died instantly, while the other held on for only a few hours before letting go. Their deaths as well as the other two that happened has changed my perspective on death, life and living. I used to think of tomorrow and finishing things that weren’t completed today, but I now live for today and always live each day as it were my last. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and life should never be taken for granted. Death doesn’t see a target and for the most part it is always unexpected. Life is short, and the four deaths that happened in my life within a three-month span have made me believe that more then ever.