I Try Not to Take Things For Granted
We all often forget our blessings at times. We’ve all heard, “there are people out there who would have given anything to make it to 20. Be grateful.”
Makes me think of something that I discovered years ago. I remember growing up every time I went with one of my great aunts to the cemetery to visit her late husband (and this great aunt has since passed away, last year) I’d pass the gravestone of an infant girl in the next plot. I didn’t understand the concept of periods of time and calculating ages until I was an older child. I’ll never forget that gravestone probably as long as I live, especially the epitaph .
I always looked at it and thought about who’s baby she might be. Why did she die? (As a older child I thought, “she’s my age, she’s not supposed to be dead.”)
I literally found out probably last year that that baby was the daughter of one of my high school secretaries. I had passed by that woman’s desk for years, never having any idea of the connection. Never knowing that she would have had a daughter that went to SMHS like the rest of us.
As a teenager and now as an adult I still think to myself, why was it fate that that girl is dead, and I’m alive? Literally, how is this chosen? Is it really all just “survival of the fittest” for us, same as the animals? I was born sick and weak, and I almost didn’t survive past infancy. Why did I live?
I often have a very hard time to see my blessings, but this story still gets my attention and reminds me again that plenty of people die without literally ever seeing the light of day. It’s strange how life works.
Makes me think of something that I discovered years ago. I remember growing up every time I went with one of my great aunts to the cemetery to visit her late husband (and this great aunt has since passed away, last year) I’d pass the gravestone of an infant girl in the next plot. I didn’t understand the concept of periods of time and calculating ages until I was an older child. I’ll never forget that gravestone probably as long as I live, especially the epitaph .
I always looked at it and thought about who’s baby she might be. Why did she die? (As a older child I thought, “she’s my age, she’s not supposed to be dead.”)
I literally found out probably last year that that baby was the daughter of one of my high school secretaries. I had passed by that woman’s desk for years, never having any idea of the connection. Never knowing that she would have had a daughter that went to SMHS like the rest of us.
As a teenager and now as an adult I still think to myself, why was it fate that that girl is dead, and I’m alive? Literally, how is this chosen? Is it really all just “survival of the fittest” for us, same as the animals? I was born sick and weak, and I almost didn’t survive past infancy. Why did I live?
I often have a very hard time to see my blessings, but this story still gets my attention and reminds me again that plenty of people die without literally ever seeing the light of day. It’s strange how life works.
26-30, F
