Coping with Death in the Family

I was busy scanning my Facebook news feed when a certain post caught my attention. It was a long painful message of an acquaintance to his father who just died. I braced myself ahead knowing that the message will also affect me greatly and remind myself silently on how far I have been just to cope up with the pain of losing my father a long time ago. And touché! Reading it just opened the gates of grief once more about how devastating it was to our family.

My father died of cardiac arrest on December of 2004. It was shocking and untimely. The hardest part of coping with death is the learning part—and how to relay it to other members of the family. When my brother texted me about it, my world suddenly stopped. Everything went still and I was dumbfounded (just like those we see in the movies), then the realization hit me, and the pain (oh the pain!) just consumed me and I broke down to tears.

Our family mourned for a while. It was the saddest moment of our lives. And I will be a hypocrite if I’ll deny that I did not question God why it was so soon. I regretted for a fact that I have been very hard to my father and I did not let him know how much I loved him. There was a nagging thought of fear as well, of what will happen to us since he was gone.  And no matter how consoling and supportive our relatives and friends were just to comfort us after his demise, it seems like nothing was really helping.

But time healed the loss and it took a lot of faith for us to continue with our journey. Death in the end, made us closer and it opened our eyes to value and love each other more because you’ll never know when your time is up.

I just like to quote this from the Bible which brought me peace coping up with the loss. Revelation 14:13 says, "Then I heard a voice from heaven say, 'Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.'

Death is inevitable. And yes, it is but normal to grieve over our significant loss. The pain will always be there. Time and again, we cry, we suffer. But we will then stand up on our feet stronger than ever in God’s perfect will and time knowing that He will never forsake nor leave us and that He will take care of our dead.

Jessie Corpuz-Dericto, 28 years old is a Freelance Writer, Blogger, Virtual Assistant and a nursing mom. She is also into news and trends, fashion, photography, painting, sketching and the roller coaster ride of motherhood. She loves sensible talks, long walks and activities that will enrich both the mind and soul.