It is amazing how after reaching a certain age, how all of a sudden or so it seems, something like dying or death could become a part o’ ya thinking.
You think dat one time, leh we just say fuh example, about seven tuh ten years or so ago, anybody would catch me reading the obituaries in the newspapers, hear myself in any kind o’ discussion ’bout dying or even wondering how people does deal wid it?
No! Dat wasn’t a topic dat would easily come up and the other thing is dat my friends and people around me would very seldom or hardly be engaging in dah kinda conversation just so. It wasn’t a everyday kinda conversation.
Fuh example, I lost my parents some years back now. My mother went first and then years later, my sweet father like he decided at around 91 years old dat he had enough. So, he very peacefully went tuh sleep one night and didn’t wake up again.
I ain’t telling you nuh lie, even though the two deaths was a good few years apart, it was very hard mentally and emotionally but it was even harder financially.
Now dat is what I mean when I talk ’bout the cost of dying.
Now mentally ya does have tuh tell ya’self dat this is something dat happens in life – people will born and people have tuh die; so ya does have tuh come tuh grips wid it.
Then, it does leave ya emotionally drained as ya does have tuh keep telling ya’self dat the body ain’t around nuhmore tuh talk wid, laugh wid or even quarrel wid and dat is emotionally hard, especially if you and the body was close.
Now, if you think dat the two o’ dem hard, here comes the financial burden ya does have tuh take on.
Look, I ain’t know how my leaving this world gine affect people emotionally or mentally, but one thing I always pray and ask God for is dat when my time comes I would have put things in order so dat my children won’t have tuh pull duh pockets fuh anything.
I would like tuh have all o’ dat sorted out before so dat long after I gone ’long ’bout my business, dem still scrambling tuh make ends meet fuh dem and duh families and still got my debt hanging on ’round duh necks.
I ain’t want nutten so. I think the emotional and mental burden is enough.
Ya’all must be wondering how Mavis get tuh this place this week, if she got plans of leaving ’bout here anytime soon. Well, not really, but ya have tuh be realistic.
Ya ain’t got nuh choice but tuh notice how things happening nowadays.
In recent times people have been dying sudden so wid-out any kinda warning or nutten. Evah minute ya hearing ’bout a accident and somebody get kill.
Another time ya hearing ’bout somebody who wasn’t sick nor laid up suddenly just dead and gone ’long easy so, all of a sudden, sending dah family in tuh a tailspin, leaving dem emotionally and mentally confuse.
Ya see, at a time like this when evahbody tightening duh belts and trying tuh make ends meet, duh gotta take up dah piece o’ change dem did trying tuh hold on tuh as duh ain’t know how things gine turn out ’bout here and pay funeral expenses.
Listen, it is one thing tuh dead and guh ’long but it is another fuh the people who left back here tuh pick up the mental, emotional and financial slack. I always pray and ask God tuh help me tuh put all my li’l business in order so dat the day when He decide tuh call me from ’bout here, I doan leave anything major or outstanding fuh my children to tek care of.
Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
