It came knocking again…at another neighbor’s apartment. It is the third one of our neighbors to die in the past year. We were alerted to this death by the masses of cars and people appearing in our alley. It is customary in this culture to keep the body in the home. The body is embalmed and placed in a small wooden casket, then placed in a main room of the house. The family is present and friends and neighbors come and walk a circle around the casket, greeting the family as they walk. Whenever guests are paying their respects, there is constant wailing going on. It is slightly overwhelming at times.
The most recent death this week was an elderly gentleman. He lived in the next building entrance over from ours. We did not know him. A couple days after we first noticed the large number of people, we again saw the alley filled with people. This time the hearse was present and piled high with flowers. It was the funeral day. We just caught sight of the commotion when the hearse sped away and then 6 men started carrying the casket down the alley. They did this with it lifted high…and open. Why? Because they believe it was the last chance for the dead gentleman to see his neighborhood and for neighbors to say a final good-bye. We had a perfect view from our third floor apartment. Several people proceeded to follow those carrying the casket. Shortly, everyone was gone...off to the burial site.
Our other neighbors who have passed on from this life lived in our building entrance. One lived in the apartment across the hall from us and one was beneath us. The one on the second floor was also an elderly gentleman whom we only saw a few times. The other we saw quite often. He was a kind man. He was only in his 40’s. He left behind a wife and a son in his 20’s. This man was in a car accident and then in a coma for a couple months. It is almost exactly a year ago when the car accident happened. We often see the wife and son, and it is still so difficult for them. This year has been tough on them individually and on their relationship with each other. They need much prayer.
This post is certainly not on a positive note…just some observations from this culture and life in general. We all face it. Death will come knocking some day. It’s inevitable. But there is a time for many other things to happen too…the events which make up LIFE.
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
