Funerals.

I know the title of this may seem slightly morbid, but death is a reality for all of us right?

And I know this may be hard to believe, but I have yet to attend a funeral.  And I know I have written about this before, but it's the truth! And I suppose I should consider this a HUGE blessing right?

So when my grandma started talking about the reality of her death a few weeks ago - it dawned on me that her funeral may be the one that changes everything.  She was talking about her desire to be cremated, where she wanted her ashes, and how her own mother, my great-grandmother, had bought a plot next to her for my grandmother to be buried in.

Death is a reality for my grandmother ...this I know.  And like I mentioned before it's a reality for us all.  But something about it it just feels different when someone has lived a long life.  Something about it feels just and accepted.  I suppose it's the way things are suppose to be right?

And I can just imagine what her funeral will be like...people will be at peace, knowing that she is no longer suffering from her aches and pains, knowing that it was simply her time to go.

But what about when a child dies??  What does that funeral feel like?? Something just seems wrong with that picture right?  It's not the way things are suppose to be...parents outliving their children.

Well I watched this movie Angels in the Dust.  The film is about a South African couple who cares for HIV/AIDS orphans.  According to the TakePart Campaign, AIDS is leaving entire South African villages decimated and thousands of children orphaned, with no adults to raise them.  Marion and Con Cloete walked away from a privileged life to build Boikarabelo, an extraordinary village and school that provides shelter, food, and education to more than 550 South African children.

The bit in the film that stuck out to me was when a young man mentioned that it was normal to go to three funerals in one day..THREE funerals people!  I can't even remember going to ONE, but this man said he couldn't even keep track of how many funerals he had been to in the last month, let alone in the last year.  People and especially children are dropping like flies and dying left and right from HIV/AIDS.

Poor people living at the edge of a graveyard in South Africa.

And the same man went onto say that in South Africa, and I'm sure in other parts of Africa too, there are cemeteries that are just filled with children.  Children whose lives ended too early.  Children who died before they even had a chance to fully live.  Children who died before they had a chance to fully become adults, to marry, to have children of their own.  Children who died from a terrible disease that is truly ravaging the continent.

And I can't help but think ...What is wrong with this picture?  ...with this disparity?  I mean three funerals in one DAY...have you ever gone to three funerals in one day?  in one month?

Just stop and think about it...life is precious - so very precious and I so often take my own life and health for granted.