My Big Question ~ What Happens When We Die?

I became a pharmacist, David qualified as an architect and Mo became a dentist then married a soldier. While I stayed within eighty miles of home both of them travelled the world. I received postcards and letters from ever more exotic places then, in more recent years, we learned to email. We swopped stories about our children and sorted the world out as best we could given our complete lack of influence on anything other than our own families. 

David, with his wife, and Mo and her husband all moved back home when they retired and we were able to get together for a good gossip more often. Then they became ill. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy took over their lives for long periods over several years until, within days of each other, their battles were lost.

I still don’t know what to think about death. What happens next? Do we just decompose, disappear as if we never existed or does something of us live on? I find it difficult if not impossible to imagine heaven or hell, the cartoon angels on puffy white clouds look ridiculous to me. Is it really possible for everyone who ever died, for whatever reason; accident, disease, old age, murdered and murderer, to reappear together in a paradise or wherever?  Does resurrection happen? 

The vicar spoke of my friends in the present tense. They are, he said several times, not were. I know that in a sense something of us lives on in our children, genetically speaking. I am what I am physically because of my ancestors, and my parents gave me their thoughts and characters to share as well. My children will be what I am to some extent combined with other new influences. 

I think other people such as partners, friends and work colleagues also added to my being. Their ways are part of mine, their thoughts and feelings have become something of me. My two late friends are also a part of me and a part of everyone they ever met. They will live on. I think Reverend Strong was right; they are, not were.