A few days ago as I was going about my usual daily routine when I heard the sound of a blaring fire
truck. When I looked out the window I saw a frantic woman in the driveway across the street waving her hands as the local police pulled up in the driveway. An ambulance arrived and took its place next to the police car, as a fire truck parked on the street. Definitely a lot of commotion going on at an elderly woman's home which is usually very quiet.
Almost as if watching a movie I couldn't tear myself away from the window as I watched the woman explaining that she could see the lady who lived in the house clearly through the window but when she rang the doorbell there was no response. The police decided to bust the glass and go in. I saw the emergency squad rush in with the gurney. When they came out less then 5 minutes later with no patient onboard. I just knew she was dead. My boyfriend said he saw the flutter of a white sheet through the front window of her home as they covered her body.
Not long after the fire truck and ambulance left leaving only the cop to stand guard over the body until the men in black came for her. My sister said when there's a death the police will stay until the body is picked up. I found it so strange that the police have to guard someone who is dead. I mean, do they think someone is going to run away with the corpse? Is she going to get up and walk away on her own? I don't think so. I found the whole process very strange.
Hours went by and family members started arriving and hugging each other in the driveway. Most certainly trying to console each other. The cop kept moving his car and pacing back and forth in the driveway as more and more people filled up the home.
The woman who lived there was old. I didn't know her that well, but I would presume her to be in her eighties. My dogs barked at her every day as she walked to her mailbox to pick up her daily correspondence. Now they would bark no more. This quiet woman who seemed to be so independent was now gone. Her whole life came to an end on this Spring like day. Was she sick? or did God just decide her time here was through? I had so many questions about someone I really didn't even know. I mean I saw her pull in and out of her driveway, her family and friends would come to visit, but to say I knew her. No, I did not. Yet, I felt sad that day knowing as everyone rushed about with their daily activities that this woman who had a family of her own, was now dead.
Her whole life came down to waiting for two guys in black suits to take her away. Take her away from where she had lived her entire married life. From the home where she had raised her children, created a life for herself and her husband, where so many memories were made. Now they were taking her away......and I couldn't stop staring out that window as they slowly drove down the street with the body of a woman whom I saw yesterday getting her mail and today was dead. There was just something not right about all of it.
I know we all have to die someday, but to be honest it scares me. None of us know when it will come or how it will all end. I just hope that when my time comes people will say kind things about me and my family and friends will miss me. I hope that I will have done worthy things and leave the world a little better of a place then it was when I entered. What can I do that might live on forever long after I'm gone.
We all wonder "what's the point?" What happens to us when we die? where do we go? Do our souls really leave our bodies and travel on? Until we each experience death for ourselves we'll never really know the answer to these questions. All I knew as I stared out the window that day was that death had come calling right across the street. I felt a sign of relief that it wasn't one of my family members or someone I deeply loved, but yet it was someone who mattered to someone else.
I slowly closed the blinds feeling safer already from deaths outstretched hand,and went back to my mundane daily existence but I couldn't shake the sad feelings I had as my day was interrupted by "death through a window".
