I'm Almost Afraid To Open The Facebook Page...

We live in a very close community. Many of us have lived in the same neighborhood for decades. Because my parents bought undeveloped land in the late 1960s, I had a chance to build a home on a lot next to the house where I grew up. Most of my friends who grew up in the neighborhood didn't have that chance--not that they wouldn't like to live here, but their parents stayed and they had to find homes of their own. It's the way of things.

I consider myself lucky, or to use a term more familiar in these parts...blessed.

And because technology allows us now to be connected digitally on social network platforms, our little neighborhood has its own Facebook page. It's centered around our local church congregation, and since most in the surrounding city blocks adhere to the same religious affiliation (at least, on paper...), the Facebook page works well as a neighborhood source for news.

There's posts most would find interesting, jobs postings, things for sale, boy scout projects, but since February 2018 the site has been flooded with news of deaths.

It's the way of things.

It's getting to the point where I'm afraid to even open up the page for fear another person I know has passed away. Today I went back and counted--there were news of nine deaths in the last twelve months, two who died were related to those still in the neighborhood and seven were those living in our congregational boundaries. We've lost three in 2019 already.

Because many of us love where we live, we stay. And since we stay, we end up passing away in the same neighborhood where we raised our kids. And each year we grow another year older. Our neighborhood has gone from mostly young families to empty nesters. It's the way of all things--for the young to grow old and the old to stop growing.

We've had a tough twelve months--friends, neighbors, children, parents--we've lost all kinds. And when inevitably another of our friends, neighbors, children, and/or parents pass away, the news will be sent out via the Facebook site.

And I'll almost be afraid to open the page...

But I will. And I'll think of how we've lost another wonderful person.

It's the way of things.