Terrible Shocks

Have you ever had a moment of sudden horrifying shock?  It makes you weak for a bit, as if your internal gyroscope got bounced against the walls instead of staying suspended.
I was reading A Story on facebook, and the names sounded sooo familiar... I started to get queasy.  Their faces jumped out of the photograph and I was transported - back in time and place until I was in their living room long ago, laughing with them and my husband. It was way too late for parents who need to get up with their kids in the morning, and who have to be in class themselves, but life is short, so we lived it.  It was smoky and close, and we were so connected to each other.


I am back in the cold, hard present. [Maybe it's the time travel that makes me queasy.] Their faces are just a photograph again, she is really gone, and my heart is breaking. It wakes up all the dead who have been peacefully sleeping, and they dance in my head once more. Their feet splash through my river of tears, as I smile at their antics, remembering their humour, pain, joy and love.  Even with the hurt of losing them, I wouldn't trade knowing them and being a part of their lives. We are all just paper towel, joined together [or slightly separated] by perforations, until one by one the sheets are ripped off the roll, affecting all that remain by their going.   Or are we more like wet wipes? I think we must be - at first we are wrapped around the outer edge of the bottle and it seems a large enough space. Each piece is pulled from the middle of the roll, and the center piece can see the opening from within the container, getting closer and closer to leaving.
Analogies fall short, but knowing that I will see my sisters and brothers in Christ when we are raised again makes it a bittersweet parting instead of a devastating sorrow.
 Farewell, my dears, until we meet again..