The death of a loved one

[Jazzy1]

What was your first experience with death?

 

[Paladin1950]

My grandmother (mother's mother) in 1957, when I was 7. I remember going to the funeral parlor during the visiting hours. Don't remember the funeral at all. I do remember my father's funeral. He died 10 days before my 16th birthday, in 1966.

 

[Pinky]

My boyfriend's father passed away. I was around 21/22, and had never experienced the death of a close one. At the funeral home, he and his mother offered to walk me up for a "viewing". I froze. Just could not do it.

 

[Tish]

I was 9 years old when my mum died.
It was total chaos for me and even worse for my little sister, who was 5 and didn't have a clue about why our mum went to heaven and didn't take us with her.

 

[hollydolly]

I had relatives die when I was very young, but it didn't affect me directly.... we were just told about it by my mum

The first death that broke my heart was my mother when I was 18,...there was all my siblings, and the youngest was 10... .... but just 7 days earlier, my grandfather had died, he died on the Thursday, mum died the following thursday... it took a long time to get over the double death shock

 

[Marcy Sheiner]

My great grandma, who we called Bema, died when I was 10 or 11. My sister and I were playing with cards, this game called Knuckles, where we rapped each other on the knuckles for bad moves, and we weren't allowed to play it. My mom was sitting nearby blowing her nose and said "I have sad news for you." I thought she was gonna tell us we had to stop the game, but instead she said "Bema died." Then I noticed she was crying and everything was very hush hush after that.

 

[DebraMae]

The first one that hit me hard was when my grandfather died. He was the one who took me fishing and spent time with me. My aunt kept trying to get me to walk to the front for a "viewing" and I just could not do it either @Pinky. I am still glad I didn't.

 

[VaughanJB]

My grandfather on my mothers side.

Horrific. At least I was young enough back then that crying was easier to come by.

 

[bowmore]

My dear wife. She was diagnosed with lung cancer. I went to work, kissed her goodbye, and by the time I got to work I got a call from her caregiver that she had passed.
Fortunately, I had made arrangements, and by the time I got home, the funeral director was there and carried her out to the hearse.
I picked up her ashes a few days later, and on the following weekend I took a kayak offshore from the place we used to spend our anniversaries, and scattered her ashes. I spent a few moments thinking about the 30 years we had spent together and paddled back to shore.

 

[Pepper]

I realize now I was "lucky." I was 25 when I lost my Grandma Rose, my mother's mother. It was devastating, but at least did not happen sooner.

 

[Manatee]

My grandfather passed away when I was about 12 years old. In the funeral parlor they had deep pile carpeting. When people walked across it they would build up a static electricity charge. When they touched a doorknob or something metal they would spark. It was difficult to keep a straight face when this happened, which was frequent.

 

[Warrigal]

In my family children did not attend funerals. Neither did womenfolk unless they absolutely had to. I was still a child when my beloved grandfather died so it did not seem very real.

I was 25 and a mother of two small children when my dad died suddenly one night from a heart attack. I had never been to anyone's funeral before, and I was in a state of shock. I could barely bring myself to look at his flag-draped coffin. I had to sit through two services, one at the funeral parlour and another at the crematorium. All the time I was trying not to weep because I didn't want to further upset my mother.

 

[Deya]

I was 10 when my brother died. 65 years ago but seems like yesterday.