41 # Cue Card (An incident)

An incident which changed your life

You should say:

• What happened

• Who was involved in it

• When it happened

and explain how did it change your life.

Transcript

Death, as one can imagine, is as jarring as life can get. It is the greatest anomaly in existence: the cease of existence itself. Ironic, I know. As heartless as it may sound, I'd never had much sympathy or empathy for death and the dead. It was simply a curiosity to me. I hadn't developed a better understanding of both the finality and suddenness of death until I attended a virtual stranger's funeral. The person who passed away was my friend's cousin, who I had briefly met when I'd gone over to her house for lunch a few weeks before his death. Being a relatively quiet person, I mostly observed. I noticed how at ease everyone was with one another, how assured they were that they would meet again, make plans, laugh and talk. The boy seemed perfectly fine, with what I presumed was great mental and physical health. Unbeknownst to both his family and I, the next time they would be seeing him, he would be dead. When I received news that someone had passed away, I was not very concerned. However, upon learning that it was my friend's cousin, I was shocked, to say the least. I had attended multiple funerals before, but they'd all been of people I had never met. Suffice to say, I genuinely felt heartsore as I watched his family grieving for him. That was the moment when the seriousness of death actually dawned on me. Ever since then, I've had a better understanding of how temporary this life truly is, which has helped me in both worldly and spiritual aspects of my life.

Written by Wardah Razzaq.