O P I N I O N
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN..
…someone from your life passes away? I like to sit alone in the quiet dark and just let my mind absorb the silence. Maybe it’s because I’m more of an introvert most days and the idea of opening up like that just doesn’t sound comforting to me. Well recently, I lost someone who was special to my existence. Winter has claimed another soul and it always feels worse but I think in reality ANY season you experience someone passing away that you care about feels horrible. My sister was 30, turning 31 on January 5, but unfortunately passed away before she got to experience that.
Death is a part of life just as much as being alive, feeling sadness, joy and everything in between. So with that understood, my question is to push the conversation instead of just ending it and being OK with it. What are you supposed to do when someone you love passes away? There’s no blueprint to life; I fully believe we are all out here just trying to figure it out day by day, but it’s not often I find people willing to conversate about this part of life. Death is ugly, it’s difficult, but it can be dangerous if the person who is still alive doesn’t have support to recover mentally. Unfortunately, I know this first-hand all too well. Having lost more than eight people before I have turned 34 makes me realize that no one is invincible and there is more to life than the little dramatic things that i see happening around me day to day.
With 2020 behind us and 2021 here, I will use every chance I have to be more positive, but still keep it real when it comes to mask control. I know that this virus is nowhere close to ending, I have now accepted this fact. As much as I hate that, nobody wins every game, so my hope is that we mask wearers win the LONG game. As I start to get back on my feet and stabilize my life, I can’t help but think how what happened to my sister could have been me. We were three years apart with the same parents, she lived a life handicapped due to epilepsy and cerebral palsy and I did not. As a kid, I complained to my mom about not being able to go out and play but over time having a sister who couldn’t do ANYTHING showed me that I should appreciate the ability to walk, period. The ability to talk. She was in a wheelchair her entire life and never got to live a life like you or me.
So while I mourn my sister’s death, I remind all of you that every day that you wake up, you should live it to the fullest because there are people out there right now that can’t walk or talk and would love to be you for just five minutes. If it were up to them maybe even longer …
Toxoplasmosis
This is the deadly infection that caused my sister to have brain damage. While pregnant, my single mother had cats, loved them to death. So of course me being 2 years old she had to clean the litter box. This is where my sister was doomed. By my mom having cats and cleaning up their wastes on her own, she contracted this infection and didn’t know she had it until way too late. No mother would want this and my mother has told me this over and over for years. I am glad my mother is knowledgeable because I didn’t know about this until I was in my 20s and she broke down how all of it went and gave me that valuable tip of keeping pregnant women away from animal feces, as goofy as it sounds it will prevent a birth defect. Just think of my mom if she knew, let her be your example and inspiration to educate yourself.
“Toxoplasmosis is a common infection that you can catch from the poo of infected cats, or infected meat. It’s usually harmless but can cause serious problems in some people.” – From NHS.UK
Read more about Toxoplasmosis here at Toxoplasmosis – Symptoms and causes – Mayo Clinic. My sister would want the world to educate themselves on how to prevent what you can, and help bring people into the world with a fighting chance.
