There's nothing sadder than a new widow in a black dress. Marjorie Green sat in the dark funeral parlor with disturbingly dry eyes. Her stone cold gaze towards the back of the room was even worse than if she had been over-displaying her emotions. At least then one would know that she is grieving. Now it was hard to tell if/when Marjorie would ever grieve.
The loss of her husband seven days ago to a sudden and unexpected heart attack left her motionless in more ways than one. For the past week she has done nothing but sit in her house silently, only moving to eat a bite of food maybe once a day and to relieve herself. Her family and friends have tried to shake her from her shock, but nothing seems to work. They've all pretty much concluded that she will move inwardly and outwardly when she's ready.
The funeral has now arrived, and everyone was very curious about her eulogy. A woman so eerily quiet for so long now must have something pretty profound conjured up in there, they were sure of that at least. Making her way to the podium, Marge looked around the room for the first time. Every time her eyes looked into someone else's they would let out a little gasp. They were just so haunted. That's really the only word to describe them: so incredibly and heart-wrenchingly haunted.
Finally, she spoke. "Why are you all here? To pay homage to a man's life? What is the point?! He's dead, for Christ's sake!! I've never understood funerals."
"Why celebrate a life that's already been lived?"
"In my opinion, the only celebration lies in every moment of that person's life. Every moment is so incredibly special. None of us really know how much. How could we? We're too busy "celebrating" a life that's over to pay attention to our own. Here's my suggestion to all of you:"
"Let Jake be dead and let yourselves be alive. Cherish every single moment because that's all you have. Quit trying to keep dead people alive and alive people dead."
With that, Marjorie took three steps away from the podium and crumpled into a ball of grief. Sobbing and wailing uncontrollably, the onlookers just sat there and stared for they were already in too much shock from her speech. After about five minutes of this immense release, she sat up, got to her feet, said, "Goodbye, my love," and walked out with the most radiant smile you ever did see.
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