Ninety-Three

We received word last week that my Great Aunt died a few days before Thanksgiving. She was 93 at the time and died in her sleep.

I spent the rest of the week feeling so appreciative of her death.

Sounds weird, doesn't it? To appreciate someone's life and also their death. But that's really how I felt.

I don't write about this much on the blog, but I live in the Middle East and I am working directly with one of the conflicts in the region (I know there seem to be tons popping up right now that it can be hard to keep them straight). In some ways, I have managed to become detached from the work and just treat the statistics as, well, statistics. But every now and then I read about a family that lost 2 children in a bombing, or I meet a family that had a child abducted, or I hear stories of 5-year-olds being chopped up as warnings to their politically involved parents.

It's horrible.

It can be hard to remember, during all of that, that some people do lead normal lives and live for a long time. A lot of people do, in fact. So right now, while I'm embroiled in hearing about people dieing young, I need to be reminded that a lot of people survive up to and through adulthood and old age.

I spent a good bit of time reflecting on how my Great Aunt's death seemed out of the ordinary to me, given all of the stories that I am used to hearing. On Thanksgiving this year I felt appreciative of her long and vibrant life, and also appreciative of her calm death at such an old age.