And to Him return

When I came home from work and picking up Hassaan from my father's, after the boys were in bed and a load of laundry was in the washer, I logged into my Facebook account as I often do.  There in my news feed was a couple of posts from mutual friends on another mutual friend's wall.  But these posts didn't seem normal.  Instead, they said things like "you'll be missed" and "rest peacefully."  So I clicked over to his page only to find that over the weekend he'd died.

He was 33.  He and my middle brother had been best friends for 25 years.  My brother just returned to Australia this past weekend, and during the time he was home he hadn't been able to connect with him, probably mostly due to lack of transportation and being home because our youngest brother was sick.  And after seeing the obituary on the funeral home's website, after calling my parents - as for a good number of those 25 years my parents were friends with his parents, both our father's being ministers in the community - I phoned my brother in Australia.  He started his Tuesday morning finding out that his best friend from childhood had died.

So on Friday, I will be going to the funeral of a young man who died far too soon.  Sometimes, I think that the best way to recognize death is the Islamic and Jewish ways - burial within 24 hours if at all possible.  Finding out about his death (that took place on Saturday) on Monday, but having to wait until Friday for the funeral just seems too much time to dwell.

But from Him we come and to Him we return.  May God have mercy on this young man, and his family, who had already lost their daughter ten years ago.