Dealing with Death

My friend passed away last Friday. We grew up together in the same neighborhood in Casablanca and were really close to each other. We spent 14 years together going to the same school and to the same classroom. She died at the age of 22 from a car accident. The other driver has had apparently too much alcohol and could not control his car when it slammed against my friend’s bare body. She didn’t have a chance to survive. I like to think that she is now in a better place. Dealing with death is not easy. No matter how ready you think yourself are, it always hits you like a rock. I am no psychologist but I will talk from my experience. First you will be shocked and will you get into the denial mode. You refuse to believe that a person with whom you shared so much is gone…forever. Then you will, hopefully in a short time, come to peace with that and you start thinking about how fair it is that that person in particular should die at such a young age. But then you will realize that nothing guarantees you that you will live until an advanced age. You will then start thinking that everyone around you including yourself could die tomorrow or at that same instant. You might start thinking then that life is too short anyway and that you should take advantage of it while it lasts. I went through all of this and a little. I realize now that what’s important is not your life but what you make of it and what kind of legacy you are going to leave after you are dead. I will always remember my friend smiling. I can’t help it but that’s the image that comes to my mind every time I think of her. People go away but their memory and legacy will be carried forever. RIP my friend, RIP sunshine.