In Memory of the Dead

It's Time to Start Protecting the Living

A young wife and mother steps into her living room. The teakettle is still whistling in the kitchen when her husband finds her body. A young father draws a bath for his toddler children. The girls start screaming that daddy fell. He's dead before he hits the floor, his heart unable to take another beat. A six year old plays with his siblings in the park. The swing still moves back and forth as his sister screams for her parents. A very old woman eagerly anticipates her 100th birthday celebration in a few weeks with a gleam in her eyes. Sadly, she won't get there. Betty White, forever 99, forever stuck in 2021. The year of the vaccine. 

These evocative images, when combined with a good screenwriter, could easily be made into scenes on movies or television. Add in some dramatic music to up the suspense level. The good FBI agents on Criminal Minds are here to find the serial killer before he strikes again! They'll kick down the door at the perfect moment, just before he ends the life of his next victim. They got the killer and the day is saved! Now get a snack as we bring you some words from our commercial sponsors. This message is brought to you by Pfizer. 

It's the vaccine, folks. The FBI agents are not coming to save the day, due to some, err, conflicts of interest. It's up to you to pick up the pieces of your broken family. And it's a lonely road.

My ambitious 10000 words a day on Kindle Vella project is going well. I got out the prologue to book 5, The Last Verse: The Realm of the Dead a few days ago. You can read it here:

The Last Verse Prologue

Yesterday, perhaps due to burnout, I took a break from everything. I guess I needed a little time to regroup and reflect. Over the course of my life I've been around a lot of dying people. I think energetically they are attracted to me. Or perhaps I am attracted to them.  Some, like my grandmother, were quite old and on a long decline, their death only a matter of when. Others, like my first husband, looked to outsiders like it was completely out of the blue and unexpected. Except it really wasn't. Death is always a shock, but sometimes it's not a surprise. 

What strikes me as ominous about the spate of "died suddenly," or "died peacefully" in their sleep type of obituaries is how many leave contextual clues that the deceased was in no way contemplating their mortality. They're making tea, or getting ready for work, or making plans for a big event. They collapse on the air during live broadcasts, on the soccer field during a game, and during online school Zoom sessions. Some make it to the hospital before the death is swept under the rug. Others are dead before they hit the floor.

This comment by someone named Kris on the Covid Blog summarized it well:

"I have been enjoying my daily reading of the local obits. I have found a few obits of folks I knew years ago. The change in the way obits are written these days is stark. The cause of death used to be listed in the first paragraph.Now it is rarely mentioned. So many people dying “peacefully at home”. One man died “peacefully near his home”. What??? Where would that be? Taking a walk? Getting the mail? Chatting in a neighbor’s yard…and he drops like a stone?

One woman died “peacefully in her sleep with her husband by her side” on a week-end trip to the coast? People don’t take off for the week-end when they are at death’s door. One pictures the spouse waking up in a hotel room next to his dead wife. Obits are now going out of their way not to use the term: died unexpectedly. The level of denial is off-the-charts in the new clown world"

Which brings me to the other ominous thing. The serial killer is still on the loose. Instead of trying to stop him from causing even more damage, many of the victims families are in a state of shocked denial. Celebrations of life cut short. It's almost like they're trying to protect the killer. 

I've got news for them. The good folks at the FBI are not going to kick down the door anymore than Mr. Operation Warp Speed is going to ride to the rescue. You are the one who will be marking all those milestones never passed and birthdays never counted. You are the one who will be looking at an empty chair in the living room. 

For the sake of humanity, start looking for the killer. The glowing box in the living room is not your friend…