Death

In my life, I have seen 3 people die in front of me. A child who was about 9 months old, who was sick and died in the hospital bed, while I was there doing my volunteer hours in order to graduate from High School in the D.R. My Great Grand Mother, Maria Pena, who died in her 90's sleeping calmly in her bed surrounded by many family members. and when John passed, my husban. I was there till his last breath. He was breathing peaceful like a baby, it was as if a candle had expired.

Seeing someone die is something that really stays with you for ever and ever. When the child died, I had many feelings, me being a child myself, I was 16 years old at that time. I didn't talk to anyone about it, and it is the first time, I am writing about it, because, it happened again with John's transition into another state of being. I have a hard time calling Death, Death. because, as I have learned, Death is not the end, the spirit never dies. It goes on to another dimension another type of world or state of being. I had visited the place in my dreams many times, and it is absolutely gorgeous and more than amazing place. Amazing and Gorgeous are words short of really defining that place. This is why I am  strongly opposed to the death penalty, Death is not a punishment, but a liberation from this painful and unbalanced world.

Visiting those places in my dreams, had helped me to overcome fear of Death, fear of the unknown. Believe me,... that place is great, people don't hate each other, there is no negative feelings, there is no punishment, there is only peace, calm, alignment, happiness and beauty there. I have mental pictures of it.

When John transitioned on 3/30/15, the nurse call me from hospice to ask me to be there because by the way he was breathing, they knew, he was going to transit soon. I got there after work by 7pm. I kissed him, touched him, held his hand, talked, and prayed for him. He was sleeping nicely and calm, just like a baby. As his time got closer, his breathing was turning slower, and it actually sounded like a newborn baby breathing, just like a real baby. Then in the final moments, he gasped for air a few times, with interrupted breathing, slowly, till I heard no more the sound of his breathing, by that time, I looked at him, since I was sitting right next to him, and I saw him expired at 11:00PM. I closed one eye that was open after his transition, the nurse told me thank you for doing that.

I went out of the room to get the nurse, she saw him and started to fill out papers. When I returned to the room with the nurse, I saw his body and withing 7 minutes, his body was like I had never seen it before, extremely pale white, it was a very shocking and painful for me to see his body like that, I left the room and didn't dare to touch him. I could not go back in there and see him like that, it was extremely painful.

I was used to seeing a very  radiant, strong, loud, healthy John. I was his shadow, I loved being his tail. I babied and pampered him all the time. After more than 19 years and 5 months of companionship, we were the rare couple who could live together and work together, we enjoyed each other's companionship. I used to put my fingers and hands on anything he was working on to help him out. We were addicted to each other, if one of us would go out for 1 or 2 hours alone to do an errand, it felt like a very long time. Sometimes, I would go somewhere to do an errand for like 20 minutes and when I came back, he would say "I missed you!" or if he went out for a few minutes, when he came back he would ask "Did you missed me?!"

John told me so many times, " I love you" that even after his passing, I can hear his voice clearly in my mind say "I love you". It was like one of those songs that get stuck to your head and you keep hearing it, that is what I feel.

We had an agreement that we were gonna reach old age together. After so many years, we still fell asleep holding hands and hugging. I feel that life dealt me a shitty card and now I have to learn how to make the best of it.


The mental picture of how his face looked with the eye open when his spirit left the body, is a pretty sad one, that stays in my mind for ever as well. I don't know where all the courage came from, for me to be able to do, see, and experience this, I will say that meditations helped me a lot. At that time, I was like, is nature, we are all going to pass and expire, well, after 2 months of his transition, it is when reality has hit me, and I had found myself in dark and dangerous grieving places, where I had been crying myself to sleep. During the day, everything is all fine and normal, but when night hits, I better make sure that I am tired enough to pass out and go to sleep, because if I don't, is not a pretty good night.